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IAYT supports research and education in Yoga and
serves Yoga practitioners, Yoga teachers, Yoga therapists, health care
professionals and researchers worldwide. Our mission is to establish Yoga as a
recognized and respected therapy in the Western world.
IAYT also serves members, the media, and the
general public as a comprehensive source of information about contemporary Yoga
education, research, and statistics.
IAYT was founded in 1989 by Larry Payne, PhD, and
Richard Miller, PhD, and had well-known Yoga teacher Lilias Folan as its
honorary president for many years. Since its establishment, IAYT has
consistently championed the cause of Yoga as a healing art through conferences,
an annual journal, a newsletter and, more recently, a growing website and a
professional referral service.
In 1999, IAYT was dissolved as an independent
nonprofit corporation and operated as a special division of Yoga Research and
Education Center (YREC) under the overall leadership of Georg Feuerstein, PhD,
an internationally respected Yoga scholar and author as well as the founder and
former president of YREC. Larry Payne continued as director, with
administrative and managing editor responsibilities assumed by Trisha Lamb.
In 2004, with the support of YREC and all of the
original founders and leadership of IAYT, the association again became an
independent nonprofit organization. The membership office and library moved
from a remote retreat center in Northern California to Prescott, Arizona.
Prescott is a small, friendly city approximately 90 miles north of Phoenix with
a diverse and growing health, healing, and spiritual community. The new office
is in a quiet building two blocks from the downtown square and is within
walking distance of two Yoga studios, a natural foods store, and a charming,
historic hotel. Prescott has excellent shuttle service to/from the Phoenix
airport, and with this much more accessible location, IAYT can better serve the
membership and the public at large. Visitors are welcome!
John Kepner, a practicing Yoga teacher and
therapist in Little Rock, Arkansas, with a professional background in
economics, finance and nonprofit management, and an interest in complementary
and alternative medicine policy, is director and focuses on policy, planning,
growth, and outreach. Trisha Lamb became associate director and editor in chief
and managed the Arizona office until she entered long term retreat at the
nearby Garchen Buddhist Institute in September 2005. Kelly McGonigal, PhD, of
San Francisco, is IAYT's new editor in chief. Amber Elliot is the membership
and office manager, assisted by Jesse Gonzales.
IAYT's new board of directors was elected
December 2004. The advisory council has been renewed and provides
representation for most of the major Yoga traditions in the West, as well as
active Yoga researchers and health care professionals. An editorial board and
peer review panel for the International Journal of Yoga Therapy was
established in 2005. Yoga Therapy in Practice was launched in
September 2005. IAYT's first Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research is
scheduled for January 2007.
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