ABOUT US

TEACHERS

Karen Allgire, MFA, RYT, CIYT, is a Level 3 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher and a Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance. She has been teaching yoga since 1998.

Karen received her MA in Dance from Ohio State University and her MFA in Dance from Case Western Reserve University. She taught modern dance and movement awareness from 1982-2000 at many Ohio institutions including Hiram College, Oberlin College, Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University. Karen has made five trips to India to study at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute. Karen was a member of the IYNAUS Newsletter committee from 2003-2008 and contributed several articles to Yoga Samachar. She served as Registration Chair for the 2011 Midwest Regional Iyengar Yoga Conference in Chicago. Karen served on the IYNAUS Assessment Committee from 2019 – 2022.

Karen’s teaching and practice have been profoundly influenced by Mary Dunn, and Dean and Rebecca Lerner. Karen continues her studies through weekly classes with Rebecca, workshops with Elise Miller and Laurie Blakeney, and national conventions with Abhijata Iyengar. Karen completed the Yoga for Scoliosis Teacher Trainer program with Elise Miller. Study of Sanskrit and chanting with Leslie Freyberg have been a special area of engagement and enjoyment. Karen specializes in blending anatomy, imagery and philosophy to nurture transformation in our yogic practices and our lives. She is an avid supporter of the performing arts and enjoys dance, theater, film and music. Karen loves to chant, sing rounds and croon American standards. She studies jazz piano with Greg Slawson.

Amy Runnels, E-RYT-500, RPYT, CIYT, has been teaching yoga since 2006 and is a Level 2 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. She is an Experienced-Registered Yoga Teacher and Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance.

Prior to embarking on the path of yoga, Amy studied Soil Science and Economics with the goal of working to shape environmental policy and make the world a better place. While working as a research and outreach associate for a non-profit organization in New York, Amy began to see human connection to the world we inhabit as central to creating a sustainable environment for ourselves and future generations.

To better understand how to create that connection for others, she endeavored to learn how to strengthen that connection for herself, and started attending yoga class during her lunch breaks. Since these first eye and mind opening classes, she has devoted herself to this practice of unifying body, breath, mind, and soul. She enrolled in her first teacher training program and began teaching others eventually becoming an Experienced-Registered Yoga Teacher and Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance as well as a Continuing Education Provider.

Amy began studying Iyengar Yoga regularly in 2011 with Karen Allgire and completed her apprenticeship program in 2016. She also studies with senior teacher Laurie Blakeney routinely in Ann Arbor. In addition to a great curiosity for yogic philosophy, she has developed a keen interest in anatomy, physiology, and the therapeutic applications of yoga, earning an Associates Degree and Physical Therapy Assisting in 2018 and more recently taking part in the Yoga Therapy Trainings of Stephanie Quirk.

She is a Level 2 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher and strives to pass along some of the immeasurable knowledge, compassion, and wisdom her teachers have shared with her. Amy lives in Shaker Heights with her husband, Patrick, and along with her continued yogic studies, is kept busy by their inquisitive teens, their dog Shelby, and Dobby the house cat.

Evelyn DeLiso, MA, PhD, CIYT, received her Level I Iyengar Yoga certification in 2018. The precise alignment in Iyengar asanas resonated with Evelyn’s classical ballet training. After attending her first class with Karen at Green Tara Yoga in 2008, she felt she had arrived at her yoga home.

She finds joy with helping students learn new aspects of the asanas. Evelyn studies regularly with Dean and Rebecca Lerner, Laurie Blakeney and Joan White for pranayama. Evelyn is married with two grown sons who live in Boston and New York. She enjoys her participation in local community theater productions where she performs as an actress/dancer/singer.

Nick Marakas, CIYT, is a Level 1 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. He has been studying Iyengar Yoga since 2004.

Nick first learned about yoga from the Andrew Weil book Natural Health Natural Medicine. He had no prior exposure to it whatsoever, but decided to give it a try at a nearby health club in Boston, and fell for it right away. Nick feels lucky that his first two teachers studied with senior Iyengar teacher Patricia Walden, as they were well steeped in the Iyengar method. He never really had a choice – it was Iyengar from the start!

Nick has studied weekly with Karen Allgire since 2016. Additionally, he has done workshops with Dean Learner and Patrica Walden, and attended the 2023 IYNAUS convention to study with Abhijata Iyengar.

Nick finds the practice of yoga indispensable because of how practical, useful, and helpful it is for cultivating health and balance. In 2025, Nick passed the assessment to become a Level 1 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. He works in the hotel industry and enjoys seeing live music. Nick lives in Cleveland Heights with his wife Liza.