Instructor Bios

Sue Rexford: Yoga and Restorative Yoga
Sue has practiced yoga and meditation for more than 12 years, and received her teacher certification from the Temple of Kriya Yoga in 2001. She began teaching at Three Pillars the very first month we opened our doors. She brings her experience as a healer into her teaching, emphasizing how the yoga path can heal on physical, emotional and spiritual levels. Though challenging in their own way, her classes tend to have a calm, meditative quality that offers balance for stressful lives. She is available for private sessions for anyone who would like to find poses or adaptations that work for their specific situation.

Cynthia Latimer, RYT: Yoga
Cynthia realized the power that yoga had the minute she stepped onto a mat. Intrigued by the teachings and the beauty of the practice she did her first teacher training at the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale Pennsylvania. She works continuously with her most valued teacher from the institute to put the lessons of yoga into practice in her daily life; themes she incorporates in all her classes. In the beginning of 2007 Cynthia finished her second training at Moksha Yoga Center Chicago. She currently teaches full time in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.

Cynthia has had the wonderful fortune of studying with teachers from all over the world but has been greatly influenced by; Pandit Jerome Smith, Ana Forrest, Tias Little, Gabriel Halpern, Sandy Anderson, Rolf Solvic, Daren Friesen, and Sean Corn.

Cynthia's classes are influenced by Iyengar, Anusara and Vinyasa styles of yoga, leaving her students feeling rejuvenated and centered, and in that presence, finding the strength to let go of what is no longer needed and discover the personal power and grace that we all possess.

Daylene: Ashtanga
Daylene acknowledges many signs pointing her in the direction of yoga. She would have a different answer, regarding how she got started, depending on the day. But she admits when starting out, she hated yoga. Asana required a different sort of strength, flexibility and attention, to which she wasn't accustomed, as compared to her past athletic experiences. It was not only challenging but also frustrating. Yet some unknown force begged her to push on.

Today, Daylene is a dedicated student, and credits the practice itself as her greatest teacher. Yoga has taught a level of compassion and love that has always been inside, but had never before been given the proper nourishment to grow. Asana inherently requires that the practitioner be fully present. Humility was her first lesson learned in yoga. The second was awareness. Once the first two were in place, the power in the practice came.

You can expect to find a rigorous and often challenging vinyasa in Daylene's classes. She believes in teaching to the student's highest potential. We are often capable of much more than we believe. The reward is in the dialogue the student has with herself. Daylene hopes that it is this dialogue that will become the ultimate teacher of her students.

Ellie Kaufman: Ashtanga
Ellie has been a dedicated practitioner of yoga for six years. She was immediately drawn to the idea of feeling internal sensations rather than judging the external, and this led her to explore many styles of yoga before finding Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in 2005. Today, she maintains a daily practice, and is continually amazed at the beauty of the Ashtanga system, providing an opportunity to look deeper in a way that energizes the body, clears the mind, and challenges both. Through her teaching, Ellie aims to convey to students the benefit of making space in life to breathe and bend.

Sung Yost: Pilates
Pilates is a lifestyle that I have embraced. That one-hour that I use to focus on "me" and not the needs of others has helped me balance my hectic life. As a mother of 2 & working full time, I had to use the hour effectively - I discovered Pilates: stretching, relaxing & de-stressing like other forms of exercises but more effective in targeting my mid area. My classes are based on the Classical approach which focuses on the form. I have been practicing Pilates for nearly 5 years and have only seen amazing results for my inner and outer self!

Marcy: Pilates
Marcy's Pilates certifications are through 'Power Pilates' and Bally's Total Fitness. She teaches Classical Pilates on both the Mat and Reformer. Classical Pilates is a proven method for increasing total body strength, developing core muscle control, elongating the spine while improving posture, and increasing over all flexibility. Her classes emphasize proper form in order to get the most benefit from each exercise. Marcy and her husband raised their four adult daughters in Hyde Park. In her life outside Pilates she runs her own garden consulting business and is involved in the community, serving on various boards and volunteering in the public schools and on several gardening projects

Marylee Brussard: Pilates Mat and Reformer I began my Pilates journey in the year 2000. Like many people, I came to Pilates via physical therapy. In my case, it was hyper-mobility, a condition of being too flexible, exacerbated by a steady diet of dance and yoga stretches, which led to my injuries. Therapy showed me the importance of balancing flexibility and muscular strength. Consequently, I became an avid fan of Pilates, and in 2004, certified in Pilates Mat through the Physicalmind Institute. For two years I taught extensively throughout Sarasota, Florida. Upon moving to Chicago in 2006, I enrolled in the year-long Power Pilates certification program. Since my journey began, I have observed hundreds of bodies over thousands of Pilates sessions. I am constantly honing my skills through self-study and continuing education with the leaders in the field.

Power Pilates is a classical system of training. It stays true to the original ideas and intent of Joseph Pilates, an approach that I feel, best equips the instructor to stay focused on what's most important-conveying the fundamentals. In my sessions, you will learn through moving and sweating… in other words, you'll come to understand the concepts in your body and then your brain… and you'll get a great workout! Through constant dialogue and observation of your body in motion, we will identify and correct postural issues, muscle imbalances, misalignment, and breathing patterns.

Tim Wang: Tai Chi and Group Kickboxing
Tim Wang is the founder and director of the Three Pillars Wellness Center. He teaches the Tai Chi classes and has been practicing since 1995. His college background is in Polymer Engineering but hasn't been in that field for a long time. Since 1992, he has been a full time Personal Fitness Trainer and Shiatsu Massage Therapist. As a continuation of his long-term work with his massage and training clients, he became a Life Coach in 1999 and is a CoachU graduate. The Three Pillars Wellness Center is an extension of Tim's passion for teaching people how to connect with their bodies and live happily in them, and how a healthy body is one component of a healthy, well-balanced life.

V'la Gonzales: Tai Chi for Seniors
V'la studied Tai Chi for Health (Yang Style) and an abbreviated form designed to benefit dancers and actors under the instruction of Hubert H. Lui in Chicago, at Columbia College beginning in 1972. As her interest in Tai Chi deepened, she continued her studies while carrying her second child and noticed that she was able to maintain a very comfortable weight throughout her pregnancy as well as practice with grace and balance to full term. She broadened her research and experience by traveling to China in 1980. Since that time she has taught Tai Chi and Hatha Yoga in dance centers, theatres, YMCAs, community centers, Wellness Day Seminars, corporate offices and the Ebony Fashion Fair National Tour.

Summer: Belly Dancing
Summer has been dancing Raks sharki, professionally for over 4 years. Raks is the Arabic word for dance. Raks sharki is North African/Middle Eastern style cabaret dance (belly dance). Summer has studied with many teachers in this dance form but her main instructor is Khalidah Kali of Khalidah's North Afrikan Dance Experience. Summer does Raks Sharki and folk dances of the Middle East & North Africa. Summer's teaching method is incorporates technique, breathing, cultural information and just plain fun. It's a fun and exciting way of learning to belly dance while exercising and relieving stress. This dance form provides a low impact total body workout, is energizing, and is wonderful for women's physical and emotional wellness.

Meredith Haggerty: Nia, Yoga
Meredith lives, teaches movement classes and maintains an artistic practice in Hyde Park. She believes that exploring movement is a practice that integrates wellness and creativity, promoting healing on many levels. Meredith is devoted to a yoga practice based on her work with a number of instructors. She is a NIA white belt, a graduate of the Ann Arbor Institute of Massage Therapy, has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Chicago and is currently studying somatics with Sondra Fraleigh. She enjoys and experiments with a studio practice based on yoga, meditation, breath therapy and site-specific dance. She very much enjoys preparing and eating delicious food as well as walking near and swimming in large bodies of water. Feel free to contact her at haggerty@uchicago.edu.

Joy Nieda: Joy has studied a variety of dance, music and movement traditions including classical ballet, modern dance, and American street dance, as well as Afro-Brazilian, West African, and South Pacific idioms. She has studied movement therapy with Moshe Feldenkrais and myofascial release techniques with John F. Barnes. She was a participant in the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 2007. She has been awarded a grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation for her work. Joy's studies are on going and truly a life-long pursuit, work that deepens her experience and understanding of culture and her place in the world