Meet the Newest Members of the Accessible Yoga Board

It takes a village to run the Accessible Yoga Association! In addition to our fabulous staff, our organization has a volunteer Board of Directors that help steer the ship, contributing to event planning, fundraising, annual awards, overall organizational direction, and more! As seats become vacant, existing board and staff members can nominate new representatives from our community, who must then be elected and confirmed.

We recently added three new members to our Board of Directors! Get to know them below.

Jacquie "Sunny" Barbee (she/her)

 Jacquie "Sunny" Barbee is an E-RYT 200 living in the panhandle of Florida. Sunny finished YTT in 2016 after turning to an asana practice to help with her chronic illness and depression. While in YTT, she realized there was a need for more teachers that didn't fit the stereotypical "yoga body" image like her, and that she could make a difference in helping people see that yoga is for everybody. She is able to share with others how to customize their practice to fit their own body, whether that body is larger, aging, or living with illness or injury, much like she does with her own practice. Creating safe spaces where the student can connect and make peace with their body is what Sunny loves most about teaching yoga. She is also certified by Accessible Yoga, Yoga for All, Mind Body Solutions, and in Yin Yoga. 

Reggie Hubbard (he/him)

Reggie is a certified yoga and meditation teacher and the founder/chief serving officer of Active Peace Yoga. His yoga and meditation practice have served as a sanctuary of peace and perspective while navigating the stresses of being a black man in the world and serving in pressure filled jobs at the height of politics. He began practicing yoga under extreme emotional distress at work and now shares his practice to all walks of life in service to helping people navigate this thing called life with more peace and ease.

Through Active Peace Yoga, he offers asana and meditation classes to help others nurture peace of mind, creativity, equanimity in spirit and physical health - helping people nurture well-being as foundational, rather than an afterthought. Reggie has taught Members of Congress, Congressional Staff, major labor unions, leading progressive organizations and individuals from all walks of life - simple tools for managing stress and bringing peace to mind, body and spirit. Reducing stress and taking better care of ourselves is a key to enhancing workplace safety, managing work/life balance and improving our quality of life.

In addition to his yoga teaching practice, Reggie has held many senior strategic and logistical roles across a variety of fields, ranging from global marketing, digital and community organizing, government relations, international education to Presidential campaigning. He recently left a senior position as a leading progressive political strategist to devote more time to his personal practices and how to share them with others in these challenging times to allow more people to live with more peace of mind.

Reggie's life work sits at the intersection of bringing more peace and balance to activists; guiding the wellness community toward being more engaged, concerned citizens; and, enhancing the well-being of all walks of life. Achieving this balance is how we catalyze transformative change in our society, which we are desperately in need of at this moment.

Reggie received a B.A. in philosophy from Yale University and an MBA in international strategy from the Vlerick Business School in Belgium.

Ryan McGraw (he/him)

Ryan McGraw approaches every class with the belief that everyone can do yoga. As a person with cerebral palsy who has been practicing yoga for 15 years, Ryan is well aware that yoga poses can be adapted to meet the needs of the student, no matter what their ability level is.

Ryan earned his 200-hour yoga teaching certificate from Prairie Yoga in 2011 and completed two adaptive yoga teacher training with Matthew Sanford. He received his Master’s Degree in Disability and Development from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013. For his master’s thesis, Ryan created an adapted yoga manual for people with disabilities. He continues his studies in accessible yoga with Gabriel Halpern in Chicago.

Ryan was featured in a US News and World Report article on adaptive yoga. He has written about his yoga experience in Yoga and Body Image, a collection of essays from people who are not the average yoga practitioner.