BOARD OF DIRECTORS
“Karma Yoga is the taking of the things you do every day with other people, of service, things like that, and making those all into an offering.” ~Ram Dass
LOREN MAHAFFEY, Board President
Loren Mahaffey B.SC, LMBT, E-RYT is passionate about learning and teaching. She has a deep understanding of the body from both an eastern and western perspective. Loren has 25 years of experience as a yoga instructor and yoga teacher trainer, licensed massage and bodywork therapist and continuing education provider. Within yoga, Loren specializes yoga anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and yogic philosophy. She teaches within both 200hr and 300hr yoga teacher certification programs.
As a licensed massage and bodywork therapist, Loren practices Zen Shiatsu Acupressure, CranioSacral Therapy, Brain Therapy, Visceral Manipulation and Lymphatic Drainage Therapy. She is certified in Aromatherapy and HeartMath. As a therapist, Loren has cultivated deep presence and advanced manual therapy skills having worked with thousands of clients over the years. As a teacher, Loren is articulate, dedicated and able to explain difficult concepts as well as subtleties of the body in a way that people can understand and relate to. She is able to transmit information within movement practices that allow intellectual learning to become a somatic felt experience.
Sarah Hall, Vice president
Sarah Hall joined the Namaspa Foundation board in 2019 after participating in Namaspa's Guatemala Yoga Retreat. She believes in the healing and grounding power of yoga and loves contributing to the Foundation’s dedication to bringing yoga to those that need it most. Sarah is a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and was born and raised here in Bend. She can often be found hiking with her golden retriever, padding an area lake, or practicing on her mat.
Sydney richards, Secretary
Sydney is a proud 200hr Namaspa YTT graduate, and holds a Masters in Public Administration focusing in nonprofit management and community development from Penn State. She currently works in the Community Development Department at NeighborImpact. Sydney is passionate about what makes communities more resilient: economically, environmentally and socially. Yoga has been an essential part of her own personal resilience journey, and she is excited to help bring yoga to all Central Oregonians, regardless of their life circumstances. When not doing yoga or nonprofit work, she can be found working in her garden, taking a dip in the Deschutes, or playing with her dog Cedar.
Suzie newcome, CO-founder & Treasurer
Suzie Newcome is the Co-Founder of the Namaspa Foundation (2018) and the Board Treasurer. Suzie became a certified yoga teacher in 2006 and founded Namaspa LLC, the studio, in 2007. Accessibility and generosity were initiatives at the heart of Namaspa LLC from the very beginning. Whether it was through offering classes at and raising donations for the Bethlehem Inn (Central Oregon's largest homeless shelter); helping to organize the annual Yogi's Unite Bend charity event for six years; incorporating scholarship opportunities and “giving back" classes and into Namaspa LLC’s 200hr Teacher Trainings; or providing free 45-day "Fresh Start" yoga passes for local therapists and counselors to give to clients who could benefit, you could always find Suzie and her teams going above and beyond to share yoga with those who could benefit most. It was in 2015 when Suzie traveled to Africa to assist a 200hr teacher training for the Africa Yoga Project, and she was so inspired by the Africa Yoga Project’s model of empowering those in need through yoga, while creating valuable jobs, that it became the inspiration and role model for what eventually grew into the 501c3 nonprofit, the Namaspa Foundation (incorporated in 2018). Suzie commutes between Bend and Portland, where she is currently attending Law School at Lewis & Clark.
Sadie Barr
Sadie Barr recovered from substance addiction in 2011 and works as a Somatic Reocvery Coach integrating recovery with mindfulness, yoga philosophy, Ayurveda, western psychology, and neuroscience. She's a Registered 500-hour Yoga Teacher and Continuing Education Provider with the Yoga Alliance and also a Faculty Member for the Institute for Living Yoga, a trauma-informed yoga school in Portland, OR. She earned her bachelors degree in psychology from Oregon State University, finds her solace on a mountaintop, and has a daughter who's an ultra talented tattoo artist here in Bend.
Nancy Lumpkin
Nancy has been serving the foundation for many years teaching foundation classes to inmates in the jail and chair yoga for seniors. She has a grounding pretense and spirit of possibility that she brings to all of her offerings. We are grateful for her presence on the board of directors as well as her presence as a teacher for the foundation.
Keri Sawyer, Head of training
Keri Sawyer, owner of Openview Yoga, has over a decade of experience facilitating movement and breath practices, embodiment, and trauma-informed practices. She is a seasoned speaker and facilitator who has trained thousands of people as an experienced 500-hour yoga teacher and licensed trainer with the Center for Trauma and Embodiment in Boston. Keri provides Trauma Sensitive yoga to trauma survivors of all ages, facilitates trainings for yoga teachers and healthcare workers, and provides research-based information and trauma-informed treatment practices to the therapeutic world. She oversees the implementation of of trauma informed practices into therapeutic models in clinical and residential treatment programs across the country, along with agency trainings and regular consultation for mental health clinicians, therapists, nurses, massage therapists, yoga teachers and more. Her passion is to provide an opportunity for survivors of trauma to have an authentic experience with a safe and predictable felt sense of their body along with spreading awareness of trauma-informed practices. Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga or TCYSY is an intervention based on sound research from the Trauma Center and The Center for Trauma and Embodiment. TCTSY is an evidence based adjunct treatment for complex trauma and is the only yoga-based practice accepted by SAMSHA and NREPP.
bruce morris, head of classes
Bruce is a Yoga Teacher and Studio Manager at Namaspa Yoga Community, with many years experience in management and leadership in local organizations. His yoga journey began over 20 years ago at the insistence of a friend and yoga teacher. He fell in love with Yoga and immediately began a consistent practice for many years. After a (too) long lull, he came to Namapsa in early 2019 feeling out of shape, stressed, and tired. The love affair reignited and Bruce began consistently practicing all forms of Yoga taught at Namaspa. Bruce graduated from the Namaspa teacher training program in 2021 after deciding that a 60-plus year-old man with a larger body could offer something unique to yoga students. That turned out to be true and Bruce now teaches a few classes per week, including for the Foundation.
His career outside yoga began as a lawyer in a prestigious international law firm in Texas, after earning his law degree from Baylor and later a Master of Laws degree from Columbia University. He moved to Bend in 1998 and left law practice to work in Social Justice, serving in a variety of capacities in local nonprofit organizations. Most recently Bruce worked for KPOV Community Radio for nine years in management capacities, culminating as Station Manager. Over the years Bruce managed and led different types of staff and volunteer teams, including over 100 volunteers at KPOV with an incredible staff of four. Bruce is a father and grandfather in a big blended family of four daughters and six grandchildren.
Lorna Henri
Lorna Henri has over 35 years of experience working in tech companies large and small. Her most recent role was as SVP of Customer Success at Modern Health, a mental health services company. She has worked at technology companies for most of her career. Prior to Modern Health, she was the Global VP at a variety of technology companies including Mapbox, Data.ai (mobile app analytics) and BrightEdge (Enterprise Saas SEO platform). She also worked for 15 years as Director of Online Marketing for a B2B company as well as various telecommunications companies. Lorna graduated from Namaspa’s YTT in March, 2024. Lorna and her husband, Joe, split their time between Walnut Creek, CA and Bend, OR where you can find them hiking, kayaking and SUPing throughout the many lakes and rivers in Central Oregon.
Ms. Henri holds an M.B.A. from Stanford Business School and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering also from Stanford University.
