About Santa Fe Community Yoga Center

For over 25 years, Santa Fe Community Yoga Center has provided affordable, high-quality yoga and holistic healing to the people of Santa Fe. We have a wide selection of yoga styles and levels.  Our classes offer a safe and comfortable space to explore both the general aspects of yoga and the more subtle energies that exist within the practice of yoga.

We are a 501(c)(3) organization and depend on the financial support of our students and our community. If you would like to support our center and its mission, please visit our Support Us page! All donations are tax-deductible. We also happily accept non-monetary forms of support.

Our Core Values

  • Inclusive CommUnity: Offering a down-to-earth environment that welcomes all

  • Accessibility: Providing high quality, affordable yoga instruction that accomodates every body

  • Healing: Cultivating holistic health and well-being in our community

  • Balanced Teachings: Embodying the many aspects of yoga and mindfulness

  • Service: Facilitating social engagement in our local community

Our Dedicated Staff

executive director

Originally from Detroit and recently from San Francisco, Ashleigh Collier began her yoga career in 2003. She started as a volunteer washing towels and cleaning mirrors in the neighborhood hot yoga studio, then graduated to the front desk before becoming a teacher of the Classic 26 & 2 in 2005. She continued teaching and training for over a decade and eventually received her 500-Hour certificate in 2016.

She currently enjoys the pencil-pushing side of yoga life as the Executive Director at SFCY. When she’s not knee-deep in spreadsheets and emails, she’s tending to her motley crew of farm animals at Shady Mesa Ranch just outside of Santa Fe.

Director of Yoga in Schools

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A Santa Fean transplant, originally from New York City, Katie Schor received her 200 hour teaching certification from Brooklyn Yoga Project, a small community based studio that reminds her very much of the authenticity of Santa Fe Community Yoga. As a career classroom teacher, becoming a yoga teacher was a natural next step: combining her love of yoga with her passion and experience for guiding others in their own learning. Katie's vinyasa classes welcome all level of yogis and offer a safe place to explore breath and movement.

Katie is the Director of SFCY's Yoga in Schools (YiS). If you are a parent, student, classroom teacher, or yoga teacher and would like to learn more about YiS, please email Katie at yis@santafecommunityyoga.org.

Marketing Director

With a professional background in non-profit management, graphic design, photography and writing, Eliza Skye holds a master’s degree in Clinical Social Work and currently works as a Program and Clinical Director at a behavioral health non-profit in Tesuque. Eliza is also a E-RYT 500 Yoga Alliance designated instructor with over 3,000 hours of teaching experience. While Eliza does not currently teach a regular class at SFCY, they still enjoy offering workshops and retreats.

About our Founder

Michael Maitreya Hopp—A Friend to All
January 7, 1961 - December 25, 2004

Michael was a well-known and loved leader, healer, teacher and creator of community in Santa Fe. Michael passionately believed in being of service to mankind and in the power of community to enhance and enrich the lives of all. His dedication to a life of service and spiritual leadership was inspired by his great yoga teacher, Sri Swami Satchidananda, who gave him the name Maitreya meaning "friend to all" as they stood together on the banks of the Ganges River.

A 14-month pilgrimage around the world, including nine months in India, brought him back to Santa Fe in 1995 to create and direct the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center.

Michael was passionate about creating a healthy community for men. He led the 14th annual New Mexico Men's Wellness Conference at Ghost Ranch Conference Center in 1998, choosing for its theme, "Healing the Healer Within." The conference continues to provide the opportunity for men to gather, sharestories andfeelings, hear each others' wisdom, explore new realms of personal growth, and deepen relationships with other men in a safe, supportive environment. For many years Michael organized an annual gathering, entitled Man2Man, which brought together gay and straight men in order to promote mutual understanding and support. Michael was also deeply concerned with reconciliation between men and women, receiving training in gender reconciliation during 2002 and 2003 in Boulder, CO. He brought that work to Santa Fe where he offered gender reconciliation workshops through the Community Yoga Center.

Michael's community involvement included service on the Interfaith Council. He was the moving force behind the labyrinths built at Frenchy's Field and the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center, created community among the yoga studios of Santa Fe, taught yoga and meditation within the prison system of New Mexico and promoted tolerance and understanding among all fellow beings.

Michael Maitreya Hopp passed on Christmas morning 2004 while visiting his family in Redwing, Minnesota. Michael, his partner Jane Prouty, and his nephew, Nathan Schmidt were victims of a carbon-monoxide accident.

Michael's work lives on with the continuation of the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center and the Yoga in Schools program. Heart Mountain Prison Project continues to bring yoga and meditation to those incarcerated in New Mexico. His spirit lives within the hearts of all those he touched.