Meet Our Teachers
Rachael Butts
Owner | Teacher
Rachael Butts
As a high school athlete, Rachael first found yoga to relieve pain from volleyball injuries. Her yoga journey began, in earnest, in Atlanta and after several years of practicing and experiencing the physical and mental benefits of yoga, she began her pursuit of becoming a yoga teacher. After moving to Colorado, Rachael completed her 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in the Fall of 2013. In 2016 Rachael took her professional yoga journey further and opened Meraki Yoga Studio in Fort Collins, Colorado. She continues to embrace the challenges of owning and managing a small business while teaching classes and events throughout the week.
Rachael’s continued desire to elevate her teaching led her to complete her 300-Hour Advanced Teacher Training. In the Spring of 2018 she completed her training with Gina Caputo of the Colorado School of Yoga in Integrated Vinyasa™. In her classes, Rachael strives to create a space that is approachable and energetically rich while carefully curating classes to support growth through integration and awareness.
When Rachael is not teaching yoga and running her business, you can find her appreciating colorful Colorado, enjoying live music and spending time her husband, Jordan and their dog, Ranger.
Adrienne Martin
Owner | Teacher
Adrienne Martin
Adrienne is a Fort Collins native known for her functional and intentional style of teaching. After completing her first training she spent several years teaching in the Fort Collins community prior to opening Meraki Yoga in 2016. Since then, she has completed her 300-Hour Teacher Training with the Colorado School of Yoga where she studied under the guidance and mentorship of Gina Caputo and Tracey Garcia. Through her most recent studies, she has gained greater insight into how this transformative practice impacts both the body and the mind, and how we can better use both for a sustainable, life-long practice on and off the mat.With 9 years of experience in her field and over 10 years in leadership and management, Adrienne has served as a contributor to Mindful Studio Magazine and a mentor for new teachers and young women entrepreneurs.
Through her practical application of yoga you can expect a class that is equal parts: exploring movement & breath and developing skill & technique.
Allison Cassetta
Teacher
Allison Cassetta
Allison grew up in beautiful northern Arizona, where she first discovered the asana practice of yoga in college, primarily as a form of exercise and place to cultivate community. Through breathwork and physical practice, she found relief from the stress of being a dedicated and ambitious student. She took these tools of yoga asana with her to graduate school, where she would practice daily as moving meditation.During the COVID pandemic, Allison found herself feeling adrift, disconnected from spirituality, while working in healthcare. The daily practice of returning to her mat helped her reconnect to herself, as well as the local community with Meraki Yoga. Through her career as a Physician Assistant specializing in gastroenterology, she became aware of the impact of chronic stress on her patient’s health, as well as her own. Many patients need a more integrative approach to healthcare. In addition to medical management of organic disease, there is a great need for management of somatic manifestation of emotional/spiritual stress. Allison began to question- how else can people be embodied to become their healthiest selves? What complementary measures to western healthcare are available? How can healthcare providers maintain their own compassion in a stressful career rife with burnout?
Allison realized that yoga was an answer. This desire to serve others led her to complete her Foundational Teacher Training through the Colorado School of Yoga in 2022. By offering yoga, Allison creates a space for students to reconnect with themselves, provides the tools they need to find solace in times of stress, so that through unity of mind and body, they may show up more fully in their lives.
Hannah Eppley
Teacher
Hannah Eppley
Hannah is a Colorado native, born and raised in the Denver metro area and relocated to Fort Collins to attend college at CSU. After completing a master’s degree in social work in 2013, Hannah had found community and a place to call home here in Fort Collins.Hannah was introduced to yoga at a local gym, while working at a non-profit supporting youth and families. She first stepped onto her mat hoping to find a way to cope with the stresses of her job as a social worker. Hannah transitioned to working with adolescents in the child welfare system, and over the next four years continued to cultivate her yoga practice and grew to love and depend on the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of yoga. She found empowerment, refuge, and resilience in the salient mind-body connection she experienced through yoga. Hannah completed her teacher training in Integrated Vinyasa with the Colorado School of Yoga in 2019. She intends to create a safe and supportive space in her classes, where others can grow, explore, challenge themselves, and witness their own resilience. Hannah is a life-long student, and she looks forward to sharing new teachings and lessons as she guides others in this practice. When she’s not on her mat, Hannah enjoys reading, spending time outdoors with her partner, tasting new foods and exploring new restaurants with family, and playing with her large, goofy cats.
Hillary Acer
Teacher
Hillary Acer
Hillary Acer, E-RYT 500, is a certified yoga teacher with over 10 years of teaching experience in the San Francisco Bay Area. Known for her alignment expertise and well-rounded and engaging classes, she integrates anatomy, breathwork, meditation, and yoga philosophy. Students who study with her, including professionals,professional athletes, beginners, and advanced yogis, leave her classes feeling balanced physically, emotionally, and mentally.Hillary intentionally cultivates a smart, safe, and welcoming environment for students of all backgrounds to explore their own unique experience and learn from challenges on the mat. She believes yoga to be some of the best modern medicine available and encourages students to apply the practices of yoga to their modern lifestyle. An advocate for immersive education, she also loves leading workshops, global yoga retreats, and 200-Hour and advanced teacher training programs.
Hillary draws on her biology education from UC Berkeley, and in her current work in the education technology sector, finding ways to make learning personalized, relevant, and memorable. When she is not chasing her passion in education, public health, or teaching yoga, you’ll find her hiking with her goofy Bernedoodle, Murphy, reading books, and planning her next yoga adventure!
Holly Pelletier
Teacher
Holly Pelletier
Holly is a passionate and driven teacher and student of yoga. She first found yoga as an anxiety-ridden college student with extremely tight hamstrings, and almost instantly, fell in love with the practice. Over the years, her practice has shifted in many ways and after completing three teacher trainings and countless other workshops and continuing education courses, she has gathered information from many different lineages to help create her own unique style that focuses a great deal on alignment, intention, energy, and key concepts from Chinese medicine. Holly’s other work, her “day job”, is that of an acupuncturist, which she cares deeply about. Her love of the two healing modalities combines seamlessly in her classes and her acupuncture sessions, which gives her unique insight into the inner workings of the body and its meridian systems. As a result, her teachings do not only tap into the physical, but also the mental, emotional, and spiritual realms. Holly currently holds her RYT 200 in Vinyasa yoga and is a licensed acupuncturist in Colorado.
Josie Lopez
Teacher
Josie Lopez
Josie is a Colorado native and has been living in Fort Collins since 2016. She is currently completing a B.S. in Health and Exercise Science with a concentration in Sports Medicine at CSU.Josie has been teaching yoga since 2014, she strives to help others reconnect in the philosophical ideas of yoga. She pays close attention to detail when designing classes with the intent to invoke all your senses. Her class connects the body, mind, and spirit with a focus on alignment and accessibility. Her goal is that you leave each class feeling inspired and challenged. Josie believes that yoga can be healing and transformational when the practitioner fully devotes themselves to the practice.
Katie Murphy
Teacher
Katie Murphy
Katie is from Colorado and loves calling Fort Collins her home. When she first started her yoga practice 9 years ago, it simply was a feel-good activity that she kept coming back to. It quickly turned into a space where she could quiet her busy mind and use asana to move energy through her physical body—it has been a way of life ever since!While Katie always wanted to be a teacher, she had no idea that the subject matter would one day be yoga. She completed her 200-hour training at YogaPod Boulder in 2019. Her style focuses on breath awareness and intentional physical movement of the body, working to create a space of presence and connection to the deeper self.
Off the mat you can find Katie taking care of her many houseplants, spending time outside in nature, cooking up dairy-free dishes, or enjoying time with family and friends.
Libby Lyons
Teacher
Libby Lyons
Libby is a Fort Collins native and CSU Alumni. She has a passion for maintaining the special sense of community she has come to know and love in her hometown.Community, together-ness, and a sense of belonging have always been of most importance to Libby. She believes that yoga is for everyBODY and wants the practice to be approachable and the classroom to be welcoming. Libby traverses between small business owner, business consultant, and yoga teacher. Libby has been teaching yoga for 12 years and finds the most joy in teaching vinyasa, where she can blend all the trainings she has taken over the years to create something that is unique, intelligent, challenging, compassionate, and perhaps most important to her, fun. Libby loves to offer yoga and fitness as a way to create community and a sense of belonging, as well as an avenue for self care and development
Miriam Colligan
Teacher
Miriam Colligan
Miriam was raised and went to school in Missouri, where she earned a bachelor's degree from Drury University in Chemistry and Biology. She has always had a passion for science and understanding how the body works on a deeper level. While in college, Miriam was searching for a healthy outlet for the stress of school, and found hot yoga. Immediately, she was hooked. Her yoga practice became her place of peace in a world of deadlines and academic pressure,and after establishing a yoga routine, found she was better equipped to handle life’s stressors. Miriam’s approach to teaching is inclusive and encouraging. She believes that every time you step on your mat, you are completing an act of bravery and love towards yourself. In her classes, you can expect a safe space to experience curiosity about what your body, breath, and mind can accomplish together.
Morgan Applebee
Teacher
Morgan Applebee
Morgan believes that the tools and teachers we invite into our lives have an immense impact on who we become. In her own pursuit of a victorious life, yoga has proved to be the most impactful tool. Under the leadership of her teachers, Rachael Butts and Adrienne Martin, she completed her Foundational Yoga Teacher Training in Integrated Vinyasa™ through the Colorado School of Yoga in 2022. She joins this lineage of teachers with immense gratitude!Since joining Meraki in 2021, Morgan has been awakened to the power of breath. It is what enables both extraordinary rest & extraordinary effort, two things you can expect to be invited into in all of Morgan's classes. These opportunities come to life in class through challenging sequences and intentional pauses that prime students to prioritize their breath and connect with the deeper layers of their being. She encourages students to claim ownership over their practice by moving in a way that honors their fluctuating mental, physical, and emotional needs on any given day.
When she is not at Meraki (which is not often), Morgan can likely be found at a local coffee shop working remotely, having movie marathons with her younger siblings, or salting a loaf of freshly baked sourdough bread.
Sarah Franco
Teacher
Sarah Franco
Sarah recently moved to Fort Collins from Miami, Florida after traveling and searching for a new place to call home. Her yogic path began 10 years ago after having a previous dance background in the performing arts realm. And she began teaching 6 years ago after shifting career paths, deciding to devote herself fully to the path of yoga. She deeply believes in the power of transformation through yoga, as it has led her towards her own journey of self rediscovery and embodiment. Her intention is to offer guidance, inspire transformation, share yogic wisdom, radical love, while still devoting herself to the practice and embodiment of it. She is of service through her teachings and experiences, offering a loving space for all to explore and unite.Her dedication to this path is endlessly growing and she remains a student even while teaching. She has accumulated close to 5,000 hours of teaching experience and is certified over 600 hours through Yoga Alliance with several continuing education training programs. Her yoga practice has inspired her to travel all over the world furthering her studies in India, Europe, the Florida Keys, and more recently virtually with mentors with different background experiences.
With her love for movement, mindfulness, and music; she has explored and learned to facilitate powerful meditation ceremonies with sound baths (yoga of sound) and yoga nidra (yogic sleep). Her journey of natural healing has also inspired her to become certified in herbalism and Reiki. She loves to travel, and naturally that inspired her to host spiritual retreats offering all her wisdom through experience. She is now on to her next quest for knowledge uncovering other skills to further be a source of support for all those who seek!
Sasha Woodard
Teacher
Sasha Woodard
Sasha took her first yoga class over 20 years ago; however did not truly see the depth and potential of a yoga practice until years later. Her journey got even deeper and gained more meaning during her yoga teacher training in 2010.Her mantra is “balance, balance, balance” and she wants to share her inspiration with her students to find balance in life through yoga. This is the yin-yang of life! She has a lifelong passion for all things active and enjoys sharing both her high energy and calming nature with her students. She considers yoga to be accessible to everyone, regardless of age or flexibility and strongly believes in yoga’s mental, spiritual and physical health benefits. Her teaching style focuses on alignment, synchronization of movement and breath, creative flow, self-acceptance, and having fun. Sasha’s other passions include running, traveling, cooking, dancing, snow skiing, spending time with friends and family, which includes her husband, two constantly-entertaining boys, and their chocolate lab, Nellie.
Shani Higgins
Teacher
Shani Higgins
Shani was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest but moved to Colorado in 2011 to attend Colorado State University. After graduating she realized she couldn’t leave the sunshine behind and has called Fort Collins home ever since.Shani is a long-time practitioner of yoga, but her practice really deepened after having children. Suffering from postpartum depression she realized that yoga not only gave her the chance to reconnect with her body, but it gave her mind the relief it desperately needed. Shani truly believes that everyone can find benefits through yoga and feels so fortunate to be able to share the practice with others. You can expect an intentional class that focuses on the mind body connection through a balance of exertion and rest with a continued focus on breath. She enjoys creating a welcoming environment where all people can feel comfortable and curious in their practice, learning to take what they learn on their mat and thread it into their everyday life.
Off her mat you can find Shani with her two kiddos or working in the garage refinishing furniture. Her and her husband love being outdoors with the kids and enjoy camping, playing golf, and being at the pool during the warmer months.
Toni Viney
Teacher
Toni Viney
Toni Viney grew up as a city girl in the Chicagoland area with close country life and farming ties. She spent her summers on a river in southern Wisconsin and learned to drive a boat well before learning to drive a car. As an adult, Toni made her way to the mountains to pursue a master’s degree at Colorado State University and discovered her love for yoga during graduate school. She became a yoga teacher in 2011 and has been teaching group classes, one-on-one private sessions, and workshops ever since. Her yoga classes are intentionally sequenced around the physical and emotional needs of her students to support their wellness goals. Much like Wisconsin’s lakes and rivers, Toni’s yoga classes are fluid and dynamic. Toni has advanced certifications with Tiffany Cruikshank through Yoga Medicine’s anatomically based educational trainings where she has learned to infuse therapeutic yoga techniques throughout her classes. She sees yoga as an important tool for exploring the mind, body, and spirit and appreciates the creative spark and community that yoga brings into her life.When she is not teaching yoga, Toni works at Colorado State University as the manager for undergraduate programs in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She is an ambassador for Yoga + Life Magazine where you may occasionally see her articles. Toni is energized by travel, nerding out on yoga, and loves to spend time with her husband, Dan, two daughters, Josie and Cecily, and goofy dog, Moxie.
Torrey Meisner
Teacher
Torrey Meisner
Torrey first fell in love with the practice of yoga when she was in high school, competing as a hurdler on her high school track & field team. At the time, she was drawn to the deep stretching and change of pace that yoga provided. Now, over a decade later, Torrey still enjoys those aspects of yoga, however she also craves the deeper dimensions, such as heightened awareness, connectedness, and empowerment.Eager to learn more about the yoga and wellness fields, Torrey attended the Colorado School of Yoga in 2018, where she earned her 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Certification.
As a yoga teacher Torrey is extremely passionate about offering yoga and mindfulness in an accessible way, allowing individuals of all abilities to find balance, peace, and calm in the midst of their busy lives. You should expect Torrey’s classes to be intentional, challenging, and engaging.