Co-Founder & Instructor

Alonzo Nelson Jr. is a husband, father, and math teacher.

He was introduced to yoga in high school by his mother where they would follow along on television.

Alonzo incorporates yoga into his math classes, with coworkers, and with the athletes he coaches.

He is a member of Black Boys Om, Yoga Alliance, Black Yoga Teacher Alliance, and a certified Baptiste Power Yoga teacher.

Instructor

Andrea Cox has been practicing yoga consistently since early 2016. As her practice grew she began to find peace through yoga which then inspired her to further her practice. She completed her 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher Training in 2019.

Yoga is one of the tenets and principles that she uses to stay grounded and free.

Andrea’s favorite styles of yoga are power and restorative.

Co-Founder & Instructor

St. Louis native, Ericka Harris, 200 RYT, began practicing yoga in 2007 and completed Yoga Teacher Training in 2015.

Dr. Ericka Harris views yoga as a lifestyle that brings people back to themselves. Oftentimes, the external world can be unsettling, so during the practice of yoga she places deep emphasis on paying attention to the breath, and it is through this paid attention that awareness is brought to one’s own deep fears, hopes, and joys.

It is Ericka’s personal mission to help others take their inner awareness with them into everyday life, to help them bring love and brightness to those around them.

Co-Founder

Melinda Oliver has been practicing yoga for almost 5 years and teaching for 3.5 years. Some of her first classes took place at Vashon High School in St. Louis City for high school girls. She believes yoga is a powerful tool for healing, self-esteem, and activism.

Instructor

Taylor Butler is a proud St. Louis native who has been practicing yoga since becoming a member of The Collective STL in 2019. She has a deep passion for utilizing yoga as a way to advance racial equity through public health.

She believes that while she may not be able to prevent Black people from experiencing stress caused by racism, she can create spaces for them to utilize their breath and movement to heal.

She is a certified pregnancy, labor, and postpartum doula and a current Doctorate of Public Health student. She focuses her studies on developing policies, programs, and practices to reduce and ultimately eliminate racial disparities in infant and maternal mortality rates in St. Louis.

Co-Founder & Instructor

Dr. Terry Harris has been practicing yoga since 2015. A 200-hour registered yoga instructor, Dr. Harris teaches community-based yoga classes as well as school-based classes. He connects Black history and storytelling in all of his classes as a reminder of the strength, courage, and wisdom of the contributions of Black people worldwide.

In addition to the yoga modality, Dr. Harris incorporates Restorative Justice/Circles to create healing spaces.

Dr. Harris has had the honor to present and share information at many workshops and conferences for organizations such as the Yoga Alliance, Accessible Yoga Conference, Black Yoga Teacher Alliance, and St. Louis Yoga Week.