Team:

Ekaterina Jeleva, Corporate Wellness Counselor (RN), E-RYT200-RYT500, Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor, has been passionately drawn towards yoga since 2003. She traveled to India in pursuit of self discovery through yoga. Ekaterina teaches an eclectic variety of yoga systems and has studied with many renowned teachers including Yogashiromani Krishan Verma and Yogacharya Srivatsa Ramaswami, a disciple of legendary yogi Sri T. Krishnamacharya. Ekaterina is a Registered Nurse RN at Stanford Healthcare; she is also pursuing her Master’s degree as Nurse Practitioner. Ekaterina is deeply passionate about applying yoga in integrative medicine.

Shriram Sarvotham, PhD, E-RYT-500, has been practicing yoga since childhood and teaching yoga for nearly three decades. He studied with many renowned teachers including Yogashiromani Krishan Verma, Yogacharya Srivatsa Ramaswami and Yogacharya Sri R. Subramaniam. Shriram’s prime focus is to share authentic and holistic yoga practices that are rooted in classic yoga texts. He has taught over 300 workshops and retreats all over the USA, led numerous mega-yogathon events, and has given lectures and demonstrations at prestigious yoga conferences. He is a faculty of Yoga Teacher Training programs for several yoga institutions and studios, including Yoga Bharati, a branch of SVYASA Bangalore. Shriram is a recipient of the “Exemplary Service Award in Yoga” given by the Consulate General of India, and the “Yoga Service Award” given by ISKCON.

Vedant Thyagaraj was introduced to yoga as a teenager. He completed his yoga teacher’s training course with Yoga Bharati back in 2011 prior to entering high school and taught weekly public classes for multiple years after. Vedant is interested in helping bring an understanding of yoga and its various benefits to today’s teenage and adolescent populations, in order to help with issues such as stress management and mental health. Vedant graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 and currently works in the finance industry.

Vidhya Gopalakrishnan, PhD, RYT200, is an executive in the pharma/biotech industryand is currently Senior Vice President at Quark Pharmaceuticals. She has over 23 years of R&D, program management, and leadership experience spanning various companies and roles.

Vidhya holds a Ph.D. in Bio-organic Chemistry and held post-doctoral positions at Penn State University and Stanford University School of Medicine. Outside of her profession that involves development of pharmacological drugs for various diseases, Vidhya strongly believes in the power of complimentary and alternate, non-pharmacological approaches such as yoga and Ayurveda for enhancing health and vitality. Vidhya is passionate about studying and practicing yoga and vedanta. She is a graduate of the Yoga Teacher Training programs offered by Yoga Bharati and EkaShri Schools of Yoga. She has studied and practiced Iyengar yoga, restorative and therapeutic yoga, and most recently, Mysore Ashtanga Yoga. She, along with a small team, piloted a yoga-music module workshop for children and families of Jeena, a Bay Area non-profit support group organization for special needs children.

Vidhya is also a board member of Pratham USA (SF chapter) and Co-Chaired the chapter’s Gala Committee from 2017-18. Vidhya is a faculty of EkaShri Schools of Yoga and is also supporting the EkaShri team in the capacity of Treasurer/CFO.