About Us
Our mission is simple:
to amplify health and wellness in our community and beyond by creating a world-class yoga festival rooted in the ancient cultural traditions of yoga and its related philosophies and practices.
Our values are aligned with the ethical yogic practices and restraints outlined by the sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, including the yamas and niyamas: particularly ahimsa (kindness to self and others in thought, word, and deed), satya (truthfulness), aparigraha (freedom from grasping), and santosha (contentment with what is).
MEET THE TEAM
Our Board of Advisors
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Petit Davina
If you live in Central Oregon, you know Petit. Her classes are a moving combination of flow, conscious movement, and heartfelt connection. In addition to teaching yoga full-time, she leads retreats and pursues adventures around the world. One of Petit’s many superpowers is conscious connection, and her exuberant Conscious Dance sessions are legendary. Ask her about her Everest climb – quite a story there!
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Deven Sisler
Deven has been teaching yoga for decades, first in New York City, then throughout the world, and now in beautiful Bend where she’s settled with her family. A leader in training yoga teachers to meet the unique needs of children and teens, Deven is also a master of partner and acro yoga She teaches workshops and trainings online and in-person, often at Namaspa and The Yoga Lab, as well as Deven Sisler Yoga.
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Lori Skiles
Happiest on the water, Lori is the owner of Paddle Board Oregon, and makes her home in both Bend, Oregon and Oahu. Trained in yoga as well as fitness, Lori teaches some killer classes on boards including Paddle Strong and many others. Mom to human kids as well as the canine kind, Lori can be found with a paddle in hand on just about any body of water around.
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Emily Tighe
Emily is the proud owner of Do Yoga Outside, primarily situated in the beautiful Bend, Oregon. Holding certifications as a yoga instructor, wilderness first responder, and Oregon Outfitters Guide, her journey into the world of outdoor yoga began in March 2023. This venture followed a period of self-reflection during a mental health leave from my public school teaching job, and it has become a fulfilling and transformative chapter in my life. Emily is our volunteer coordinator who makes things happen!
MEET THE FOUNDER
Angela Liesching
Like many seekers and feelers, Angela’s path has taken her here and there, sort of everywhere. She studied anthropology at UC Santa Cruz in the 1990s, and earned an MA in English literature in the 2010s. For many years, she traveled throughout the US inspecting blood banks and hospital-based transfusion services for an accrediting organization, and she was part of the team of consultants that brought quality management principles to the National Cancer Institute in Cairo, Egypt.
For a stretch, she freelanced writing and copy editing for political direct mail companies, and served as the copy editor for LA Yoga Magazine. Now she teaches high school in alternative education, in addition to creating a growing family of conscious events in central Oregon. She’s also a widow, and the mother of a young adult who experiences autism.
Like many of us—maybe most of us—she’s lived through traumatic experiences and grappled with loss. Her toolkit of yoga practices, traditions, and beliefs has been an integral part of her healing.
Angela feels that her dharma now is to create safe spaces for others where healing is possible. Of one thing she is certain: healing only happens in the context of loving connection with others, and in safe physical spaces.
She hopes that being part of the Bend Yoga Festival family will bring you back into awareness of the essential and unerring rightness of your being, and make it easier to return to that understanding long after the fest is over. This is, in her view, a necessary step on the healing path.