Charleen Predmore
Charleen is “The Mama” of Happy Buddha.
Charleen has a deep spiritual practice that deeply informs her teaching style. Happy Buddha’s, “Mama Char” has been practicing yoga and meditation in many forms for well over a decade. After surviving a medical emergency in 2009, she realized that it was yoga that saved and helped her to heal. Since then, she has become even more devoted to her practice and to sharing her knowledge, love and devotion with the yoga community.
She completed her 200hr Teacher Training Program with at Happy Buddha. She is the Director and Lead Instructor of Happy Buddha’s renowned Teacher Training program which is recognized by the Yoga Alliance. In addition, she has completed Advanced Therapy, Pranayama, and Restorative Yoga with Rodney Yee in 2018. She has completed her Advanced Rasa Restorative Teacher Training Program with Jamie Lyn Skolnik from Laughing Lotus. Charleen is also a certified Yin Yoga Instructor. She has also completed her Kids Yoga Teacher Training with Liz Torres, and continues with her studies with amazing teachers like Dana Flynn, Mary Dana Abbott, Cyndi Lee, Joshua Greene and many others.
Charleen is also a Level Three Reiki Master and a certified Thai Bodywork practitioner. As the mother of three, and now the grandmother of one, she understands the constant fluctuations of modern life and incorporates a strong yoga practice in an effort to maintain, balance, strength, serenity, and humor. Students can expect a fun, energetic, and nurturing class.
Charleen also has a strong energy connection with her students that has allowed her to work with those unable to attend classes in the studio due to health issues. Her healing touch has helped dozens find the peace and ease through yoga, that otherwise would not have been able to do so.
Jenny Link, C-IAYT, E-RYT 200, YACEP
After being a student of yoga for twenty years, Jenny completed her 200hr teacher training with Lotus Yoga Loft and continued her education with Prema Yoga Institute to earn her 500hr and Yoga Therapy certifications. She teaches through a therapeutic lens to support movement longevity, and you can always expect mobility, subtle physical challenges, and a little bit of brain work in her classes. Jenny encourages her students to approach yoga with curiosity, guiding them to explore variations of movement patterns in class so that they can discover what feels best in their bodies and translate those new patterns to all of their movement practices.
Sarah St. Lawrence
Sarah fell in love with yoga over twenty years ago while living in California. She began her practice at It’s Yoga in San Francisco, where she completed her first 200 hour certification in Ashtanga Yoga. Throughout the years, she has practiced many styles of yoga and received her second 200 hour certification at Happy Buddha in 2013 with Charleen Predamore and Kelly Kamm. For Sarah, yoga is not only a practice of moving and strengthening our physical bodies but an opportunity to quiet the mind and look within. We can observe the ebb and flow of our thoughts and feelings, and allow the true magic of yoga to transform us. On the mat is the perfect place to meet our highest selves. Yoga is a divine practice that offers healing, peace, inspiration, grace, humility, connection, strength and serenity. Its gifts are endless. Besides teaching and being a student of yoga, Sarah is a mom to two beautiful humans and one fur baby Lucy. She is also an elementary school teacher.
Sarita Wilson
Sarita received her 200-hour Yoga teacher training at Ananda Ashram in Monroe NY and recently received her certification in Smai Tawi Kemetic (Egyptian) Yoga. Practicing Yoga has helped her in her healing journey and loves sharing the practice to help others feel better in their bodies.
Sarita is a Holistic Health Practitioner and Reiki Master in the process of starting her own Holistic Healing Practice. As a Virgo, she loves Nature and health and is also completing an Herbalism certification program to broaden her knowledge and connection with Plants.
She has her BA in Psychology and certifications in Trauma informed yoga, Yin Yoga and Meditation Teacher training. She is a lover of dance and art and taught an African/Afro Rhythms dance class for a couple of years. She’s a mom of an almost grown son James who she loves to pieces and a pet mom to a tuxedo cat named Spikey who she also loves to pieces too.
Sandra Fuentes
I began practicing at Happy Buddha in 2008 shortly after the studio had opened. I absolutely fell in love with yoga. My physical practice has made me feel stronger and healthier while maintaining a balance in my daily activities.
Providing a service for others and creating a sense of well being has truly made me so happy as an instructor.
As an active cyclist and in weight training I know that incorporating yoga is so important. Taking care of my own body and understanding how important our health is, enables me to provide a positive class environment.
I completed the 200-hour teacher training. I have also taken several accredited workshops enabling me incorporate into my practice. With years of teaching classes, observing and learning under other instructors, I will continue to grow my practice. I am currently completing the certified personal trainer courses to further my fitness education.
I am so excited to continue with my journey here at Happy Buddha where I can truly call a welcoming family❤️
Valerie Lee-Sabatini
I’m young at heart, truly love all animals, very involved mother of two, utterly in love with my husband, close to my family, avid reader, sun worshiper, and yoga practitioner/ teacher.
Several months before my first actual yoga class I had broken my foot training for my black belt in Tang-Soo-Do, at which time I realized I needed a new path to better care for my body.
I came to Happy Buddha in 2012 on a whim with a friend for something to do. Never did I think that first class would put me on the path of my never ending journey. As I started practicing asanas daily I craved more and more of the other parts of yoga, studying under the teachers at Happy Buddha, I’ve never been without the knowledge and guidance I needed to immerse myself into my practice. My desire to learn more, and with a little nudge of support, I’ve found myself in Happy Buddha’s 200hr teacher training under Charleen and Kelly, and already looking forward to going for my 500hr. As a young adult I had mostly disassociated with organized religion and found myself loving that yoga accepts all types of people and allows individuality while also being part of something bigger.
I really enjoy teaching a Level 3 class, which is designed for students looking to work towards challenging complex poses, arm balances, inversions and a sprinkling of stories, mantras and mudras.
Melanie Speranza
Melanie is honored to serve as your guide through classes at Happy Buddha Yoga. In addition to being a yoga instructor, Melanie has also served as a Special Education teacher for over twenty years and is currently a k-5 reading coach. She holds an L2 certification in CrossFit and a 200-hour RYS teacher training in yoga. Like so many others, she has struggled with moments of overdoing things in her life. Her journey on the mat is paramount to her growth and recovery off the mat, helping her be a happier, better human. Yoga helps her focus on the present moment and helps to quiet her mind. Melanie’s classes are designed and offered for everybody. She believes in providing variations for all the beautiful and unique yogis that enter a shared space to embrace the mind-body-spirit connection. Melanie is proud to call herself a seeker, friend, mom, and wife. In her spare time, she is an avid body-moving, tattoo collecting, cookie-eating, TV-watching, nature lover who privately sings 70’s and 80’s classics in the privacy of her own car.
Staci Labuda
Staci (Anastasia) has been teaching yoga for about 10 years. She discovered her passion for it when she was in her early twenties at the local YMCA. She was drawn to how it allowed her to actually feel her body. During this time Staci had been struggling with a serious eating disorder that caused her to disconnect from her physical body and yoga was a vital piece in connecting her mind and body. Using yoga as a way to stay “in shape,” Staci began to notice more of the benefits yoga had to offer like reducing her anxiety, depression, and falling in love with life again. Wanting to further her studies in yoga, she decided to become certified in yoga therapy. This opened up a whole new world of information. Since then Staci has been focusing more on helping her students in the way that yoga has helped her, by getting them to really settle into their bodies. Her classes are generally slower paced, but still challenging and enjoyed by all levels of practitioners.. There is a lot of focus on the breath to keep you in the current moment, and one of her favorite things to do is to teach mediation, so she always makes sure there is a long savasana meditation at the end of class. When Staci isn’t teaching, she spends her time learning new skills that she can use to further help other people. She recently became a certified life coach in hopes to be able to help others who struggle with body image, self-confidence, and self-love. Staci also enjoys creating art of any kind that brings a smile to people's faces. Her art is playful, colorful, and light hearted. Staci also enjoys spending time with her dog, Basil, ecstatic dance, going to the gym, and learning new skills like soap making.
Elisa Piscitelli, E-RYT, YACEP
Taking prenatal yoga classes in 2004 while pregnant with her 2nd child was a life changer! After learning gentle movements and techniques that helped her body relax, her interest was piqued and she “dabbled” in various practices for many years after. Around 2008 she started regularly attending Buddhist meditation groups on a weekly basis, short term silent retreats and was trained to help assist in leading retreats, Dharma discussions and other meditation centered practices. Elisa finally merged the two practices, of physical yoga and mindful meditation when she enrolled in her first 200hr. training in 2012.
Immediately upon her RYT designation, she began teaching multiple classes a week at Happy Buddha Yoga as well as private instruction, schools and other locations. In 2014, Elisa left her full-time corporate advertising job to make Yoga and Meditation her life’s work. She opened and successfully operated a yoga studio in Middletown, NY for over 6 years before deciding to shut down permanently during the pandemic. In addition to the initial training, she has completed many more trainings over the years, including Yoga Anatomy Principles (500hrs.) with Leslie Kaminoff & Amy Matthews as well as Yoga Therapeutics, Restorative & Anatomy (40+ hrs.) with Rodney Yee, countless Ayurveda trainings and workshops and Level 1 Reiki.
In addition to her love of Yoga and Meditation, Elisa is a devoted mom to 3 kids, an avid live music fan, a hopeful gardener, an experimental home cook and a novice beekeeper. She and her best friend/partner Bryan have a sweet little homestead where they humanely raise chickens and other critters that wander through.
Julia Langro
Julia is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance. She completed her 200-hour Ashtanga Vinyasa and Vinyasa Flow Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) in Portugal at Bend it like Buddha. Some of the courses she took include pranayama, meditation, adjustments and alignment, anatomy, and teaching methods. She learned many different breathing and mindfulness techniques, appropriate use of props, how and when to cue students, and how to sequence yoga flows. During this training, she also received an 8-hour Ayurveda Massage Training. In 2019, she furthered her education by completing a 30-hour online Yoga Nidra Training through ShivaShakti School of Yoga and has since completed her 50-hour online Yin Yoga Teacher Training. She is signed up to take an 85-hour Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training in the fall of 2023 and is super excited to extend her knowledge.
Julia worked as a vinyasa yoga instructor at SUNY Oneonta through the Intramurals Department for two years. She also worked at Om Sweet Om Yoga Studio in Port Washington, New York. She worked there from 2020 to 2022, when the studio had to close its doors due to financial hardships brought on by the pandemic. She held donation-based vinyasa yoga classes in Sunset Park in Port Washington, New York during the summer, and during the height of the pandemic, offered free yoga classes through Instagram Live. Julia has experience teaching both virtual and in-person classes. She has used Instagram Live, Zoom, and YouTube to teach virtually. She continues to hold virtual Zoom classes twice weekly. She also teaches yoga to staff in the Monticello Central School District. She is beyond excited to join the Happy Buddha family!
Denise Davis
Denise Davis is a retired, local, public school teacher with over thirty-five years experience. She began her yoga journey in 2014 while taking classes at Yoga Lotus Loft. By 2018, Denise had completed her 200 hour teacher-training program in the same studio. Through Yogapalooza, in 2020, Denise became certified to additionally provide children yoga instruction. Her aspiration is to help children develop breathing techniques, improve focus, and to implement self-regulation strategies through movement.
Susan O’Dell
Susan O’Dell is a dedicated 200-hr certified yoga teacher whose passion for yoga has transformed her life and she is now inspiring others on their own journeys.
Susan is also an advanced Reiki practitioner as well as a long time RN.
Susan has harnessed the power of yoga to steer her life on a gateway of self discovery, and inner peace. She hopes to do the same for her students.
Debbie Hauser
Debbie Hauser is currently a Ph.D. student of natural medicine at Quantum University. She holds her first master’s in integrated health and has just finished her second master’s degree in Holistic Health Sciences. Debbie is an AADP board-certified Health Coach. She has multiple certifications in; Quantum Health Coaching, Ayurvedic Nutrition, Advanced Applications of Yoga, Therapy, Vinyasa Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Life Coaching, Hypnosis, Reiki Masters, Mindfulness Meditation Teacher, Quantum Healing, EFT, and TFT Tapping. Her focus is Mind-Body medicine, centered on natural approaches to healing the effects of anxiety and stress, using the core principles of Ayurveda as a foundation for treatment.
Tarin Hackbarth
After Tarin took her first yoga class, which happened to be at Happy Buddha, she was hooked! Tarin instantly knew she needed to deepen her knowledge, become a certified instructor, and share the amazing benefits of yoga. With a background in the fitness industry and an athlete herself, yoga was the perfect compliment to add to her regime. Tarin uses her fitness background within her classes to not only improve flexibility but to also strengthen the muscles with the coordination of the breath. Her philosophy is yoga is for everybody and every body.
Tarin received her 200 RYT through Yoga Fit in 2013, while she was pregnant with her daughter. She is also a certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor. When Tarin is not on her mat sharing her love of yoga, she can be found outdoors loving life with her daughter by her side.