Janel (Schullo) Usry M.Ed., 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 holds an M.Ed. in Interdisciplinary Education with a specialization in Yoga Studies. Her scholarly interests include religious belief and meaning-making; modern yoga; critical pedagogy; and the role of somatic learning in self-awareness. She is a 500-hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher, a 1000-hour Nosara Yoga Institute Affiliated Program Director, and  Self-Awakening Yoga Teacher Trainer. Janel has been a member of the Yoga Alliance and the International Association of Yoga Therapists since 2003. In addition to directing Yoga Teacher Training at Nexus Institute, Janel is a professor of yoga studies at Endicott College in Beverly, MA and a Ph.D. candidate in the school of Educational Studies at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.  Her current work considers contemporary yoga education from transformative and embodied learning perspectives. 

 

Janel's Doctoral study entitled, "Listen to Your Body First and me Second" Embodied Learning in Yoga Teacher Education: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis" was recently approved by the Institutional Review Board at Lesley University and is in the research stage. 

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Teaching and Leadership

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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, 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 | Self-Awakening Yoga, Nosara, Costa Rica | 2008 - 2016

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

• 500-Hour Yoga Teacher Trainer

• Self-Awakening Yoga Therapeutics 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

• Neuroscience and Yoga for Transforming Trauma with Dr. Jim Hopper

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