HEART & SOUL YOGA 2022 WELLNESS SPEAKERS

FEMALE MAKER MARKET

Founder of The Female Maker Market and Co-Owner of Dani & Ronni  in Claremont Village, Ronnie Salazar  is a  powerhouse entrepreneur  living a life of giving and receiving inspiration. Her work  also lives in giving women a light to find their strengths, their tribe and their purpose. Ronnie comes with an intention to  build entrepreneurship  through planting seeds of encouragement in her community and yours.

CHITO FOUNDATION

Highly recognized and respected within the Los Angeles community, Veronica Alvarado has participated as an active crowd funder and mentor for multiple humanitarian initiatives.  Her recent venture is the formation of her own nonprofit, The Chito Foundation aimed to empower Latino youth to take action on on their path to entrepreneurship through access to mentorship, self-care and financial literacy programs. Veronica will be shedding light on why wellness with adolescents is so important and why taking care of our mental health is crucial for kids to witness. 

HERBAL TEA  & VEGAN LOCAL BIZ OWNER

Owner of Veggie y Que in Whittier, Laura also brings beautiful teas to her community from her second business, Manifest Tea Station. This Vegan and Herbal Queen will share her guiding light through a Heart Activated tea ceremony in honor of self-love, friendship and romance. 

ACUPRESSURE & YOGA EXPERT

Heather Ellis ,  is a Yoga Alliance Certified E-RYT500 Yoga teacher and Meridian Yoga Therapy practitioner. Heather specializes in working with Multiple Sclerosis and other autoimmune conditions.  This devoted yogi is passionate about her volunteer work with addicts and marginalized folks (formerly at New York Harm Reduction Educators). She completed her 200 hour YTT at Lighthouse Yoga  in 2015. She went on to  receive her Advanced Yoga Teacher Certification at Science of Self Yoga School where she later completed the Meridian Yoga Technique Certification and the NADA Ear Acupuncture Certification at NYHRE. Coming to Heart & Soul Yoga, she brings her story  of recovery, health and wellness after 40 and a message on how to embrace ourselves fully as we hit  those "middle-ages". To compliment our yoga session, Ellis will also be demonstrating  how to activate  acupressure points for physical and mental health. 

NUTRITION & FITNESS

Uptown Vibe is a cafe serving their community  juice, smoothies, energy and protein beverages.  Their mission is to help bring simple ways, everyday people can achieve a healthier lifestyle through nutrition and staying active. The sister business of Uptown Vibe is Mamba Fitness, located in Pico Rivera, making it easy for these women to stay fit with their customers.

Their goal is to not only help people lose weight but to provide workout and nutritional programs that fit the mind, body and soul and last a lifetime. This energetic team will be joining the Heart & Soul  community to talk about overcoming working-out anxiety and how to break bad eating habits.

COMMUNITY ADVOCATE

Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA)

For the past year, Bonnie Bilitch has volunteered as the court appointed advocate for a 14 year old youth.  

A native Californian, Bonnie has lived in the College Hills Historical District in Whittier for over 20 years, where she and her husband James raised their three children. She recently retired from the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.  She finds her active volunteer work with CASA to be important to share with her community.

CASA is a nation-wide program of 949 community-based programs with over 76,00 volunteers serving 251,00 children nationwide. CASA of Los Angeles (CASA-LA) is one of the largest CASA programs in the country. While there are over 30,000 children under the supervision of LA County Department of Child and Family Services, only 1,238 of them have an advocate.

CASA volunteers take action and advocate for children, youth, and families in the courtroom and in all areas of their lives in order to support educational, mental and physical health as well as safety and permanency goals. 

Learn more about CASA and how you can make an impact on a child

THERAPIST GUIDING HEALING FOR ALL

Briana L. Boyd, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in San Diego, California. Dr. Boyd received her B.A. in psychology at Humboldt State University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She completed her clinical internship at Harvard Medical School where she specialized in treating severe psychopathology on the psychiatric inpatient unit, substance abuse disorders in residential and outpatient facilities, and rehabilitation psychology with individuals living with spinal cord injuries. 

With passion and purpose, it is Dr. Boyd's hope to provide a blueprint of true and whole healing. In a world full of "self-help" everything, Dr. Boyd wants every person to have confidence in knowing the steps they are taking towards their healing path are the right steps.

CLICK TO SEE RECAP OF HER VISIT