Our Instructors

Meet Our Dedicated Teaching Staff

Our Team is Knowledgeable and Committed

Mia Tarduno

Owner at Thrive Yoga Summit, Founder of Move Create Radiate

Mia’s mission is to create gathering spaces for others to share knowledge, express themselves, and be supported. Her yoga classes aim to reconnect people with their natural states of being to restore balance in their health, lifestyle, work, and relationships. She is a 500hr Registered Yoga Instructor, Certified Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher, Registered Restorative Yoga Instructor, and Certified Professional Life Coach. She specializes specifically in yoga for women’s health and cyclical living in her business Move Create Radiate. Her classes and offerings blend the tools of yoga, ancient wisdom, breathwork, rituals, somatic movement, and exploring vulnerable moments and conversations to help heal and nourish the soul.

Brittany romano

Founder at Thrive Yoga Studios.

Brittany took her first yoga class as a university student and became fascinated with the process of self-inquiry and self-awareness. In 2008, she got her first 200HR Certification as Konalani Yoga Ashram in Hawaii. Life on the ashram taught Brittany about the value of living a yogic lifestyle.

Brittany has also trained to teach Yin, Restorative, and Pre-Natal Yoga. She has supported and assisted in numerous teacher trainings and is currently working to build a teacher training curriculum for Thrive Yoga Studios. She most enjoys studying and practicing with teachers such as Tiffany Cruikshank, Meghan Currie and Luciana Ross.

Her favorite styles to practice and teach are Vinyasa and Yin Yoga. Her classes have been described as adventurous, grounded and relevant. You can expect unique, challenging sequencing that draws infinite parallels between yoga and life. All levels are always welcome.

Take time to make your soul happy

chelsea Carter

Breathwork & Meditation

Chelsea’s higher purpose is to hold space for humans on their healing journey, to embody her highest self and to connect with nature. She uses her knowledge as an Advanced Breathwork Facilitator, Chopra-certified Meditation teacher, Reiki Master and more to provide opportunities for self-love and healing in each class. Her classes help people reduce stress and negativity, increase mindfulness and feelings of gratitude, activate abundance, improve relationships, tap into inner guidance and increase clarity, efficiency and productivity. When she isn’t leading Breathwork and Meditation classes, Breathwork Workshops and Cacao Ceremonies at Thrive Yoga Summit, she is: meditating, backcountry skiing, breathing, backpacking, holding space, sipping cacao, photographing, hiking, tending to her indoor jungle and outdoor veggies, writing for Girl Boss Colorado Magazine, teaching skiing and Leave No Trace, scuba diving, cooking, enjoying a craft beer at Outer Range and loving her partner. ⁠

Angela Light-Smith

Hatha, Vinyasa and Restorative & Meditation

Angela’s classes are designed to unite your breath to energy and your energy to intentions to tap into the strongest, fullest you! Angela found yoga after a fifteen year battle with her health that caused her to gain weight. One year she could not go ziplining for her daughter’s birthday due to weight restrictions. They rented ATV’s instead and she broke her left leg into 9 pieces in an accident. After two surgeries and months of physical therapy, she had a horrible limp and doctors said that she would never run, wear high heels or walk normally again.

She started recovering with two simple poses and lots of breathwork. After a few months, she worked up the courage to join a class and after only one class, her limp was lessened. She started taking yoga 5x a week and within a year, had healed, weighed a healthy weight and founder her Self. She then quit her job as an HR Manager and went to intensive training to gain my certification so she could bring the health and happiness to others.

Sarah Woodward

Vinyasa

Sarah discovered the magic of yoga while rehabilitating from a sports injury as a teen. She was inspired by the gentle strength-building and subtle philosophy offered in every class. Sarah completed her 200-hour teacher training in Park City, Utah in 2017. Sarah leads creative flows that introduce both adventurous poses and introspective moments, and that welcome seasoned yogis and beginners alike. Her personal philosophy is that every minute spent on your mat is a minute of freedom.

Sarah plans to pursue her 300-hour teaching training in 2022 and then jump back into her education to become an occupational therapist. When she is not laying in savasana, you’ll find Sarah studying French wine regions or romping with her dog on a trail.

Ghanay Gloude

Sound Journeys & Yoga for Graceful Aging

Who am I? A being of love, of reflection, of curiosity, basking in new awareness and old wisdom. I am reclaiming myself each day through practice and surrender to life, which feels lately like a process playful trial and perfect error. I am a songbird. I am a yogi. I am a mystic. Certified Sound Journey Practitioner and Certified YT 200hr.

Energy cannot be destroyed, only changed.

Emily Jones

Gentle Yoga

Emily’s intention is to practice gratitude, and to allow source energy to guide her offerings. She hopes to cultivate brave spaces and high vibrations! Emily’s yoga journey flourished in New Zealand in 2016. There, she completed her 200 Hour YTT in Integrated Yoga at Kawai Purapura, and was introduced to a diverse array of offerings from teachers and friends. Emily became a Certified Sound Healer in 2020, studying with our very own Emma and EJ! Most recently, she became a First Degree Reiki Practitioner in 2021, learning from the lovely Janette. All of this love and guidance from her community further enriched Emily’s personal practice, widened her perspective, and sweetened her offerings.

ELIZABETH JANE "EJ"

Yin, Sound Healing

Elizabeth Jane “ EJ” (E-RYT 500, Certified Sound Healer, and Breathwork Facilitator) creates a safe, nurturing space that allows for a depth of healing and opportunities to touch the seed of the divine within us. Her intention is to serve as a catalyst for change and self-love, to help others cultivate self-knowledge, face their shadows, and shed limiting beliefs. She has served as lead teacher for multiple 200hr Yoga Teacher Trainings around the world from India, to Malta, to Indonesia. She created and hosts a Sound Healing Certification Course in Breckenridge, Colorado. To her, these ancient tools (Breathwork, Sound, and Yoga) serve as profound medicine that help us return to our inquisitive, joyful, natural Self. She has been teaching, studying, practicing, and sharing yoga all over the world for over 9 years.

Yoga is the dance of every soul with the music of every breath that creates inner serenity & harmony

hannah cammoun

Vinyasa & Gentle Yoga

Hannah began practicing yoga in 2015 to help with anxiety. She found immense relief in linking movement with breath and with the simple yet profound feeling of her feet planted firmly on the earth. Since then, yoga has been her saving grace. She says that “it impossible to use language to describe the ways in which this beautiful practice continuously heals her spirit on and off of her mat, it is an experience that can only be felt.” Hannah hopes to be a space-holder for those who wish to go deeper and choose to use this practice as a way to facilitate internal transformation within their own hearts.

Lisa Kaufman

Align & Flow, Vinyasa, Kids

Lisa’s playful spirit and reverence for Mother Nature are the North Stars that guide her yoga teaching, personal practice, and creative pursuits. She leads with passion and purpose. She is a nurturer at heart, fostering warm and welcoming spaces for all.

Now a new mother, her pregnancy inspired an evolution of her yoga practice to foster connection with her baby, trust in her body’s wisdom and honor the sacredness of emergent Motherhood. She now seeks to cultivate opportunities for women to celebrate the potency and richness of their own journey into Motherhood as a Prenatal Yoga Teacher and aspiring Birth Doula.

Lisa weaves community by facilitating Women’s Circles and has studied the art of ceremony with teachers steeped in Earth-based philosophies. She trained in Hatha and Vinyasa yoga with the Samma Karuna School of Awakening, is a certified Reiki II practitioner through the Orion Healing Center and completed her Prenatal Yoga Teacher and Doula Trainings with Awakened Spirit Yoga.

Breana Nehls

Program Coordinator

Community and connection feed Breana’s soul. Breana is an enthusiastic yogi that extends Thrive’s many wonderful offerings to local Summit County business. Sometimes this looks like a team building event, an employee pass, renting out the studio for a special event, or another unique offering. Breana is here to get our community connected to yoga with Thrive. Want to learn more about what a community partnership program could look like for you and your company? Be in touch with Breana at partnerships@thriveyogasummit.com.

Like a tree, you have to find your roots and then you can bend in the wind