Board Members

Michael Munro

Michael Munro Co-founder of Therapeutic Approach Yoga Studio in Halifax. Mike has been offering yoga 1998. He is a Certified Interdisciplinary Yoga Instructor at the Professional level (500 hours) and he is a licensed and practicing physiotherapist. His yoga studies started in 1993 with Iyengar Yoga teacher Beverly Windsor in Newfoundland. He has since studied Interdisciplinary yoga with Don and Amba-Camp Stapleton and Ashtanga Yoga with Tim Miller, David Swenson, Mark Darby, Hart Lazer and Allison Ulan and many others. He strives to incorporate yoga, physiotherapy background and meditation knowledge to promote a balanced approach to active wellness. His principle teacher is the Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, a meditation master in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism.

Meaghan Burridge

Meaghan Burridge is a yoga teacher and the co-owner of Shakti Yoga Studios in St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador. She has served on the board of Yoga Atlantic since 2011 and is also a member of Yoga Alliance. Meaghan is a dedicated student of the yoga tradition and studies in the style of Anusara yoga. She also holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Co-op) degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Marcie-Ann Gilsig

Marcie-Ann Gilsig is a certified 500-hour Professional level yoga teacher from The Kripalu Centre for Yoga and Health.  She is also certified as a Pheonix Rising Yoga Therapist and a Chi Gong Instructor.  With over 20 years experience in the study and teaching of yoga and meditation, she brings a mature understanding of the important role yoga plays in the field of health and wellness.  Most recently she has trained as a Hebrew Chant Leader and is involved in the study of the Body Talk System.  Marcie-Ann loves the outdoors, daily walks, and especially long bike rides.  She has 2 young adult sons and lives in Halifax and Vancouver.

Miriam Zitner

A friend brought me to my first yoga class in Toronto in 1999. New to the city and my career in public relations, it seemed I barely had time to breathe let alone commit to an ongoing yoga practice. It wasn’t until 2004 that I made the time and I have been practicing since.  

Over the past decade of intense jobs, multiple moves and various life changes, I have learned that all things have their place; rain feeds the soil from which flowers bloom, night becomes day and the end of one circumstance precedes the beginning of another.

In Sanskrit, the word “yoga” comes from the word “yuj”, which means to join. Practicing eight limbs of yoga, of which asanas are but one limb, helps people to connect or join with “what is”, taming the fluctuations of the mind to find peace or contentment with the light, the dark and the undefined yet existing spaces in between.

My focus in teaching is acceptance and elasticity. We feel strong some days and stretched others; accepting that truth gives you permission to approach your life, and yoga practice, with rigor some days, rest others and acceptance always.

Miriam recently moved back to Halifax after more than a decade away. A senior communications strategist, Miriam completed her 200 hr YTT with Himalaya Yoga Valley in India in 2008.

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.  ~B.K.S. Iyengar

Leanne Whiting

Leanne began practicing yoga 10 years ago, while living in Hong Kong and training vigorously for adventure races, open water swims, and outrigger canoeing.  The practice began as a physical journey as an effort to heal and prevent a re-occuring knee injury.  The teachings quickly became her tool to let go, slow down, and unwind from some of the overwhelming stimulants from living in a fast past world.

Leanne is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT), and is a dedicated student of Anusara Yoga (www.anusara.com) and Acro Yoga (www.acroyoga.org).  Leanne is currently studying with Barrie Risman in Montreal in the Anusara tradition.  Leanne has completed a Yoga Therapeutics training with Sianna Shermann & Kenny Graham, and has attended Anusara workshops with John Friend in Hong Kong & Paris. 

Leanne is also devoted to Acro Yoga and is inspired by San Francisco teacher Jeremy Simon, co-founder Jason Nemer of whom Leanne studied with in an AcroYoga Immersion in London. 



Leanne is an established Elementary teacher and combines the fundamental inquiry principles of a teacher with the wisdom and therapeutics of yoga, the mentorship qualities of a life coach, and her daily learning experiences to create a model of teaching that leaves students of all ages curious, inspired, and open  to the opportunity to love life to their fullest alignment and potential.