Meet Our Teachers

Get to know our amazing instructors. We’ve assembled a team of highly talented and knowledgeable teachers from all different yogic backgrounds and lineages, giving you the opportunity to try out different styles and find what suits you best. Many of our teachers are also available for private, one on one yoga sessions to help you better explore your personal practice.

Azi Tavassoli, Founder of Easy Day Yoga

Azi’s lifelong passion for helping others heal and uncover their self-worth is rooted in her childhood dream of creating a sanctuary for growth and connection. She envisioned a place of healing where she could host others, share her blessings, and inspire transformation. This calling became clear after Azi completed a life-changing 10-day silent Vipassana meditation, prompting her to leave a high-stress career and dedicate herself fully to the path of yoga and meditation.

Drawing from her professional background in Psychology, French, and Persian literature, Azi founded Easy Day Yoga to serve as a space where mindful living and self-discovery are nurtured both on and off the mat. She believes that yoga is not just a physical practice but a way of life—one that integrates mindfulness into every aspect of daily living.

Azi teaches Meditation and Vinyasa classes, blending her deep understanding of ancient teachings with her heartfelt mission to support her community’s journey toward healing and self-realization.

Chad Ross, RYT 500

What started with a spark in dry land warm ups for swim team, has grown into a lifetime of practice and urge to share the gift of yoga, helping others find their inner fire. Yoga gives us the tool of practice, enabling us to grow our awareness of the body, stabilize the chattering mind, and open up space for our heart songs to ring out. Being able to help others find their own inner magnificence is a true joy of being a yoga teacher. Since beginning teaching in 2016, Chad's classes offer funky vinyasa flows bringing the sweat, grounding down in yin, and witnessing true relaxation through yoga nidra. When not on the mat, Chad can often be found on the W&OD working up mileage, or paddling on the Potomac.

Chad teaches Vinyasa and Yin/Nidra Tibetan Sound Bath classes.

Gretchen Schutte, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Gretchen began her wellness and yoga journey in 2006 when she started practicing yoga as a method of stress relief. As her practice grew, she knew she wanted to share the gift of yoga with others. Gretchen's education started with a Vinyasa Yoga training and grew to include Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra. At the root of her classes are tools that help you navigate your day with more ease. Her intention is for you to take the movement, breath, and mindfulness you learn on the mat out into your life to navigate your day with a sense of calm.

Gretchen teaches Vinyasa & Gentle classes.

Jessi Hughes, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500

Jessi is a yoga therapist and lifelong student who enjoys teaching everything from challenging flows to gentle restorative classes. She celebrates the opportunity to help students connect with themselves and discover their own optimal alignment. Her formal yoga education is extensive but the most important credential is her commitment to her own personal practice. Her growing interest in mindfulness and meditation inspires her to share the tools and insights she currently enjoys with others. Jessi aims to provide classes that are focused on student experience and student safety, so that each person can find ways that yoga supports their individual needs. She often thinks of a quote by Lao Tzu which underscores the values of her teaching approach: "A leader is best when people barely know she exists. When her work is done, her aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." Outside of yoga, Jessi can be found out with friends, exploring the arts and outdoors, and working on finishing a PhD in Health and Human Performance.

Jess Tashakkori, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, YACEP

Jess is a positive force for the evolution of others. As a student of yoga for over 12 years now she believes that yoga is something to be felt, embraced, and embodied not something that we do. She feels confident that the practice presents us with a pathway to both awareness and the present moment; filled with tools to be explored both on and off the mat. Her students are saying: they feel seen, love her energy, and have learned and incorporated the tools she’s shared in their daily lives. They love her passion and her sensible sequencing that offers both variety and synchronicity. She guides with her heart and soul, and expresses a sense of yoga beyond movement through the poses. With a combination of thoughtful sequencing, deep breathing, philosophical theming she’s sure to leave you feeling relaxed, calm, refreshed, and centered.

Michele Trufant, RYT 200

I came to yoga as a way of life rather late in life. I began a Bikram practice nine years ago and there was something about the moving into stillness that got to me. About three and a half years ago I went to my first vinyasa class and that was it; I was in my teacher training with Rolf Gates within four months. As I retired from 16 years of training race horses, I began my journey as a yoga practitioner and teacher. I love the freedom and the empowering nature of a vinyasa practice and added with daily meditation, there has been a growing joy, peace, and understanding in my life.

Michele teaches powerful Vinyasa and Rocket classes.

Amy Pulupa, RYT 200 (300-HR YTT In Progress)

Amy discovered yoga in 2002 to help heal a lifelong journey with depression. Stepping onto the mat instantly felt like home. She soon began a consistent practice, exploring various styles of yoga. In 2019 the stars aligned and she completed her 200-Hour Trauma Informed YTT at Beloved Yoga under the mentorship of Maryam Ovissi. Amy has since taken training, and become certified in Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and Yin Yoga. But her true love is in Hatha and Gentle yoga.

 Amy’s classes emphasize the importance of practicing continual awareness to create a union of mind and body through movement and breath. She believes that yoga is designed for everyone, and is a system that can be used to shape and strengthen not only the body, but more importantly, to heal the mind and the spirit. Empowering words and mindfulness suggestions are often sprinkled throughout her classes.

Amy teaches Hatha and Gentle classes.

Tiffany Coombs

Tiffany Coombs has been practicing yoga since 2003, teaching since 2008, and has dedicated over 1,000 hours to the study and practice of yoga. Her teaching style is heavily influenced by Prana Flow Yoga with Maria Garre and Yoga Medicine with Tiffany Cruikshank.

You can expect creative, intelligent sequencing that encourages healthy movement in unexpected ways. She has grounded knowledge in Hatha, Vinyasa, Restorative, and Therapeutic Yoga. She is also a licensed massage therapist. Her love of learning and self-care is an extension of her passion to educate and empower others so that we may find wellness and peace.

Nina Butler, RYT 500

Nina is a RYT 500 who teaches somatic flow, a class designed to restore the body and nervous system through specialized, dynamic movement patterns. Nina’s practice and teaching style has evolved from a power base to a somatic one, prioritizing tuning into the sensations of the body to find freedom in movement, mind, and spirit.

Nina started practicing yoga in 2018 to help manage stress, motherhood, and grief. When she’s not practicing yoga, you can find Nina outside exploring, hiking, camping, exploring nature, or paddleboarding and spending time with her two young daughters.

Susan Martin, RYT 500/E-RYT 200, RPYT, CCYT

Susan began her yoga journey 20+ years ago. She started out taking classes at gyms and watching yoga DVDs. But it wasn’t until 2005/2006, that the real “awakening” took place. That was when she took her first yoga class at a true yoga studio. Since then, her life has been transformed. She received her 200-hour certification for Prana Flow® from the Samudra School for Living Yoga affiliate program with Maria Garre. Susan has had the wonderful opportunity to study with master teachers like Shana Meyerson, Cora Wen, and Shiva Rea. She is inspired by Vinyasa styles of yoga (like Prana Flow & Baptiste) and incorporates them in her classes, but truly loves all limbs of the yogic path.

In 2011, she attended the OM Yoga Women Cancer Survivors Teacher Training with Tari Prinster in New York City. The amazing experience was humbling; nevertheless, it increased her desire to serve and give back to her community. Susan extended her yoga education in 2020 to include a 300-hour, 85-hour Prenatal and 95-hour Trauma-Informed Children's Yoga certifications.

Through yoga, Susan would like to be a source of healing in the world. Although she is still a work in progress, yoga has given her the strength inside and out to live each day with compassion and a positive outlook. Susan notices how yoga calms her soul and only wishes to share that with her students. She teaches with the seasons combining her knowledge of the Chakras, meridian lines & Ayurveda. Susan is also a Reiki Master as well as a Licensed Master Esthetician.

Susan teaches Vinyasa, Yin & Restorative classes.

Monica Hoybach, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Monica came back to her yoga journey in 2012 after a surgery in search of balance. She received her RYT 200 certification in 2017 and her RYT 500 certification in 2020 with a focus on philosophy.

Monica teaches Vinyasa, Power, and Ashtanga fused classes. She teaches powerful and energetic flow classes, incorporating various pranayama styles somatically connecting the whole energetic body.

Jessica Ogden, RYT 200

Jess came to yoga while living in London in the mid-1990s. A gym-rat and busy academic, Jess was looking for more flow in her life. A friend recommended Ashtanga, and she was hooked. Jess finally did her yoga teacher training at Flow Yoga in Leesburg, VA in 2012. Since then, she has taught Vinyasa yoga in her community of Lovettsville, VA., and is delighted to now be teaching at Easy Day!

What she loves most about teaching is the amazing sharing of energy that happens in the studio, and watching the transformation take place among her students as they grow into their own unique practice. Jess teaches a vigorous vinyasa flow, plays with fun transitions and tells terrible jokes along the way. Jess lives on Furnace Mountain with her husband, son, wolfdog and feral cat. Come flow with her!

Jessica teaches Vinyasa classes.

Madison Rudolf, RYT 200

For Madison, yoga started as a component of her off-ice training during her 15 years of competitive figure skating. When she decided to put her skates aside as she entered college, yoga evolved into Madison’s main form of movement, meditation, and creative expression! Encouraged to deepen her knowledge of the practice, Madison completed her 200 hours of yoga teacher training in Ubud, Bali during her travels around Southeast Asia in early 2023. 

Madison started as a student at Easy Day in 2021. She joined Easy Day’s staff in July 2023 to support Azi in managing the studio, and later taught her first Vinyasa class in November 2023! Her accessible and energizing classes encourage students to open their hearts, embrace vulnerability, and be where their feet are. When she’s not practicing yoga, you can find Madison at Trader Joe’s, running or cycling, or planning her next travel adventure! 

Ari van der Burg, RYT 500

Known for teaching some of the most creative and inspiring vinyasa flows, Ari brings a fresh and dynamic approach to every session. As a competitive athlete with horses for over 30 years, Ari began practicing yoga in 2005 to help overcome injuries. Over the years she has trained under countless yoga teachers, becoming certified herself, earning her RYT-500. In addition, Ari has a background in dance and gymnastics. She has extensive training and is certified in mobility and flexibility and also teaches contortion and hand balancing.

Ari teaches Creative Vinyasa Flow at Easy Day.