The Blue Mud Staff

Ian Wittenmyer
Ian is certified to teach yoga through Western Yoga College and certified in bodywork through NCBTMB. He began teaching yoga in 2004 in the Iyengar style. Since then, he has explored many styles of yoga both as teacher and student and found benefits in every approach! Ian says, "Yoga postures should be approached as a method to open and explore the body/mind, not as objectives for the students to achieve."




Lisa Harris
A student of yoga since 1997, with a masters degree in education, Lisa naturally evolved into an instructor of yoga. Studying regularly with the world’s top teachers, Lisa has acquired over 400 hours of professional training from teachers including Erich Schiffman, John Friend, Desiree Rumbaugh, and Martin Kirk.

While becoming an Anusara-inspired teacher, Lisa learned techniques to free her own body from chronic back pain and delights in sharing her knowledge with others. Lisa's classes are known for providing easily understood details for aligning the body for optimal safety, stretch, and therapeutic benefit. By offering a choice of gentle, moderate or intense stretch in each class, students work with compassion and respect for their individual needs. Lisa encourages student to make the practice their own. Emphasis is placed on deep breathing, postural alignment, opening to internal awareness and having fun!

Heather Stevning, Owner & Director
In 1978, Heather left home for a 30-day yoga teacher training, although to hear her youngest daughter Jenny tell it, her mom was gone the entire year of Jenny’s first grade in elementary school. Since that time, yoga became a way of life for Heather! What began as a weekly yoga class at the local YWCA in the eighties, evolved into BLUE MUD YOGA Studio in 1995, which became as they say, “a safe place to stretch your spirit.” Heather has been guiding others in the expansion of the human spirit for many decades now, but don’t be fooled by Heather’s evolving consciousness. She is still like everyone else: she forgets to turn off the garden hose, backs out of the garage before it opens completely, and loves quiet Sunday afternoons at home with her dogs, Honey Girl and Bobby Joe Jack.

Jenny Stevning
At age six, Jenny experienced her first yoga class. Remember – her mother, Heather had just returned from yoga teacher training and Jenny and her older siblings were obvious guinea pigs! Jenny loved yoga class and dreamed of levitating as the great yogis of India, but what she really loved were the Oreos served after class. Today, Jenny stays busy teaching yoga and sitting the front desk at BLUE MUD, raising her sarcastic, but spirited teenage daughter, Chloe and launching her own new business, ARTBURN. After all this time, Jenny still loves Oreos best and and has not yet learned to levitate.

Armound Mahmoudi
A very long time and true friend of BLUE MUD, Armound has a charm and passion that is contagious. His spiritual journey of the last few years led him to study what is termed Kriya Yoga and now he wants to share his love of Spirit through this particular approach to yoga. Armound is a dentist in our area, married to our friend Rebeca and father to their daughter, Victoria.

Pat Geary
Practicing yoga since she was fourteen, Pat Geary has been teaching yoga since 1995. Her classes focus on traditional hatha yoga poses, however she enjoys including some kundalini movements and pranayama.

Pat also presents Blue Mud workshops in the art of Tarot card reading. Pat is a professor of creative writing at the University of Redlands, where she teaches fiction writing and yoga.

Phil Fulton
Talented artist! Awesome guy and great yoga instructor! What more do you need to know?

Tabetha Johnson
Tabetha began practicing yoga in 1998. Under the direction of Patricia Geary, Tabetha taught yoga for four years. As an avid runner and bicyclist, Tabetha enjoys yoga as a compliment to her vigorous exercise schedule. Her style of teaching incorporates many different types of practice: breathwork, balance, strength building for smaller muscle groups and flexibility in larger muscle groups. Tabetha says, "The ‘staying in the present moment’ concept associated with any yoga practice is what I love most."