Janel (Schullo) Usry Ph.D., E-RYT 500 is an American yoga educator and former Catholic Nun. She is co-founder and co-director of Nexus Institute Yoga & Wellness. Janel has worked as a 200-hour and 500-hour yoga teacher trainer since 2006. She has over 25 years of experience guiding teacher certifications, adult learning, and continuing education programs, classes, and private sessions. 

 

Janel is a 500-hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher; 1000-hour Nosara Yoga Institute Affiliated Program Director; and Self-Awakening Yoga Teacher Trainer. She has been a member of the Yoga Alliance and the International Association of Yoga Therapists since 2003. Janel has a Masters degree in yoga studies and a Ph.D. in Educational Studies. Her doctoral dissertation, "Listen Your Body First and Me Second," Embodied Learning in Yoga Teacher Education, explores yoga education from transformative and embodied learning perspectives.​

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Janel is grateful to have trained and worked with Don and Amba Stapleton at the Nosara Yoga Institute and to continue to honor their teaching legacy as the first yoga teacher training in Costa Rica at Nexus Institute.

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Teaching and Leadership

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Remote Adjunct Professor | Endicott College, Beverly MA | 2021-Present

• LST301: Yoga Theory Culture and Practice
 

Presenter | SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies, University of London | 2021

• Paper presentation on yoga teacher education, Yoga Studies post-graduate conference.
• Round table participant, Yoga Studies post-graduate conference.

Co-Director | Nexus Institute Yoga & Wellness, Nosara, Costa Rica | 2017 - Present

• 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Trainer
• 300-Hour Yoga Teacher Trainer

• 500-Hour Yoga Teacher Trainer
 

Senior Teaching Faculty | Nosara Yoga Institute, Costa Rica | 2008 - 2016

• 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Trainer
• 300-Hour Yoga Teacher Trainer

• 500-Hour Yoga Teacher Trainer

• Self-Awakening Yoga Teacher Trainer

• Pranassage Practitioner Trainer

• Inner Quest of the Yoga Educator Facilitator

• Origins of Yoga, Lead Teacher

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Faculty Assistant | Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Lenox, MA | 2006 - 2013

• Kripalu 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training
• Self Awakening Yoga Therapeutics with Dr. Don Stapleton
• Frontiers of Trauma Treatment with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

• Trauma, Body, and the Brain with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

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