Our story
We turn your world upside down so you can see right side up.
YogaRoots On Location, LLC® leads embodied collective liberation through Raja yoga. We aim to meet people where they are and offer humane professional development, continuing education, and Certified Raja Yoga Teacher Training nationwide. Collective liberation is our path to healing. It is our dream to recognize our humanity and find the courage to end systems of oppression such as racism, patriarchy, colonialism, ableism, and capitalism.
We see Integrative Raja Yoga as a path to do so.
Our founder.
With a background in community health and education, Felicia integrates trauma-informed wellness with Raja Yoga
FELICIA SAVAGE FRIEDMAN
For over 30 years Felicia has transformed lives with embodied antiracist organizing through Raja Yoga. Standing firm on the belief that we are all bound and dehumanized by systems of oppression, she envisions a humankind where we have dismantled these systems of oppression and humanely rebuilt new systems together.
A wellness thought leader and yoga guide, her integrative practice ranges from individual to corporate wellness, centered in communities of accountability. Since founding YogaRoots On Location, Felicia has worked with local and national partners including the Allegheny County Health Department’s Maternal and Child Health Department, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine Division, Shuman Juvenile Detention Center, University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Child Development, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Repair The World, The Kingsley Association, The Pittsburgh Study, and Bike Pittsburgh to unpack racist, capitalist, and patriarchal systems of oppression. Her incredibly vulnerable practice invites breath, meditation, movement, and discussion as a platform to navigate trauma.
In addition to being awarded a Positive Racial Identity Development in Early Education (P.R.I.D.E.) Artist-In-Residence in 2017 and the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s F.I.N.E. Artist-in-Residence, 2017–2018, Felicia was recognized as a 2018 Onyx Women Network Woman to Watch. In 2018 and 2019, Felicia was selected to participate in both Alisha B. Wormsley’s “The People Are The Light” and “There Are Black People in the Future” as an Artist-in Residence. In 2019, she was honored by Creative Mornings as a featured speaker, and, additionally, in 2019 as a co-keynote speaker at the University of Pittsburgh’s Reflective Supervision Symposium and as a keynote speaker for Remake Learning on Social-Emotional Learning. Felicia holds a Master of Elementary Education, is a 500-hour Experienced-Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT), a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT), and a Certified Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider. She is the Founder and CEO of YogaRoots On Location, LLC® and its 200-hour Certified Registered AntiRacist Raja Yoga School.
Felicia is honored to be married to Martin Lee Friedman, a white Abolitionist Storyteller and AntiRacist Trainer. They are blessed with two adult children: Cleveland, an Independent Inventor in Minneapolis, MN and Maya, the Director of Training with YogaRoots On Location, Pittsburgh, PA..
Our team.
Experienced and community-centered professionals committed to collective healing.
Sheba Gittens
Compassionate Joy & Liberation HeArtivist // Co-Director of Yoga Teacher Training
(she/they)
Mother (Guide) to Alioune and sister to humanity, Sheba is an ancestor returned living in this iteration of the world. She is a heArtivist, Arts Educator, Co-creator of Space, Facilitator of Joy, Organizer with Community, and a Weaver of Truth. Sheba received her BA in Africana Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and has spent her career in the practice of equity and justice. She is a certified Wellness Coach (Institute for Integrative Nutrition), a Prenatal Yoga Instructor (SoulWork), and a 200-hr Raja Yoga Instructor (Yoga Roots on Location). Utilizing a multitude of mediums, Sheba presents workshops, co-creates integrative arts experiences, facilitates affinity group spaces with Folks of the Global Majority, and exists as a member of humanity. Through her role with YogaRoots On Location, she bears witness and holds space for the healing and self-discovery that nurture individual and communal balance.
Maya savage
Curator of Peaceful Moments // Co-Lead Instructor of Yoga Teacher Training
(say/my/name)
Maya Savage is a natural educator, deeply committed to helping humanity get to the next level through her lived experience of a race analysis. Born into a vegan Raja Yoga practice, Maya works diligently to bring truth and nourishment to all who inquire. As a Program Director and Facilitator with YogaRoots On Location, Maya creates atmospheres of trust, honesty, and equity where people can work bravely to turn problems into solutions. During her seven years as an Educator, Curriculum Writer, and Dean, Maya worked with students and school leadership to end systemic oppression in the education system. In addition to her work with YogaRoots On Location, Maya is a lead facilitator with Soul Focused Group and founder and CEO of Reclaiming Savage. In all her endeavors, Maya empowers community members by cultivating authentic relationships for all. In practice, Maya experiences a holistically joyful life by breathing equity into all aspects of it.
sue shannon
Conduit of Collective Emergence // Director of Operations
(she/her)
Sue centers relationships, nourishment, nature, and rest in her life as a mother, a queer human, and a white woman of Lebanese and British descent. As Director of Operations with YogaRoots on Location, she facilitates ease and creates open pathways for the vital work of liberation. By prioritizing the human experience, transparency, and flexibility, Sue enables others to focus their energy on their own superpowers. She is a graduate of YROL’s 200-hour Raja Yoga Teacher Training and a continuous student of the 8-Limbed Path. In previous lives, Sue has been an artist, a community garden manager, a bicycle mechanic, a home renovator, an operations specialist, and a career consultant. She is most at home in water.
shelly regner
Peaceful Warrior // Director of Client Experience
(she/they)
Shelly is a white, queer woman, a compassionate truth-teller, visionary, disruptor, and creator with words who finds hope in holding space that fosters transformation. Shelly has her MSW and has spent 13 years as a social worker within child and family services. Shelly is a lifelong learner and finds themself endlessly in liminal spaces. She is a graduate of YROL’s 200-hr Raja Yoga Teacher Training and finds continual healing and growth as a student of the 8-Limbed path. Shelly seeks to hold healing spaces for imagining and working towards creating a world of love, connection, and abundance where every being can thrive. Much of her facilitation is within white affinity spaces where Shelly expands her imagination on the collective healing and repair practices white folx need to create together. As Director of Client Services, Shelly's role at YROL focuses on supporting clients throughout their engagement with YROL and their individual and collective anti-racist/anti-oppressive practices. Their role also consists of supporting projects and curriculum development and facilitating liberation spaces.
rebecca rudel
Empathetic Visionary // Director of Marketing
(she/her)
Becca is a passionate, energetic, and empathetic millennial who works as a creative consultant and photographer. She is committed to building community and connection in pursuit of challenging and dismantling systems and symptoms of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and racism. As a gentle yet spicy soul, she believes that listening and laughing are the answers to many things.
Becca is a graduate of YROL’s 200-hr Raja Yoga Teacher Training and finds enlightenment by accessing the meditative state. As the Director of Marketing, she supports marketing strategy, social media, web design, photography, and projects stemming from Felicia’s personal creative entity, The Cussin’ Yogini. Born and raised in the East End of Pittsburgh, Becca has immersed herself in local marketing for the past nine years by developing brand identities, designing digital and print content, and bringing creative visions to life.
lori crawford
Grant Fairy // Development
(she/they)
A new human mama, seasoned fur mama, spunky spouse, stellar sister, trying to be gentler daughter, and fierce friend, Lori is a white woman who navigates each day with the commitment to be as least problematic as possible and strives to be a comedic curator of community, communication, and collective wellness. As the grant and form fairy, Lori translates the ‘huh’ of long winded external documents to find the best funding and resource fits to further YROL’s mission of collective liberation. Lori’s magic wand crafts compelling proposals conveying YROL’s impact. When she’s not making questionable food pairing choices, Lori can be heard laughing with herself about something random that happened 10+ years ago, which is the secret to having the patience and diligence needed to review and complete forms somewhat correctly the first time around.
tye clarke
Creative Powerhouse // Designer
(she/they)
Meet Tye: chronic sufferer of wanderlust, 200-hr certified Raja yoga guide, and lover of all things otherworldly. She’s a creative powerhouse whose gift of foresight empowers her to be both the source of creativity and the architect behind the vision. Her passion for brand strategy and creative marketing has elevated the polish and visibility of arts and culture organizations nationwide.
Whether at work or at play, remaining curious and collaborative are defining principles. As an immersive artist and creative wellness practitioner, her work explores play and joy as tools for collective and individual liberation. Through her personal brand gooxjy co., Tye curates brave spaces and experiences that encourage unapologetic creative expression. The fire stokers, innovators, creatives, provocateurs, and visionaries, that’s her tribe.