Our Staff
Maggie LaRocca
Executive Director
Maggie LaRocca believes that nonprofits can change the world. With more than a decade of work supporting various social causes, she has a unique background combining business, research, strategy, and clinical psychology. Prior to joining Exhale to Inhale, Maggie founded a consulting business, Purposeful Results, which supported various non-profits. She also served as the Program Director for the Combat Stress Recovery Program for Wounded Warrior Project. An active participant in her community, Maggie is a founding member and Advisory Council member of Impact 100 Jersey Coast, a women’s grantmaking organization. Maggie received her bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Speech from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Sophia Holly
Director of Community Partnerships
Sophia Holly has been practicing yoga for over 15 years—a lifeline, it has assisted her with her recovery from disordered eating, and continues to support her to manage her busy lifestyle. She is an “E” 500-hour registered Yoga Instructor, with specializations in teaching trauma informed yoga through trainings with Hala Khouri of Collective Resilience Yoga and Tara Tonini formerly of Exhale to Inhale. Sophia began teaching classes with Exhale to Inhale in 2017, and became Program Manager in 2018. Sophia has taught yoga in shelters, elementary and middle schools, privately, and in yoga studio settings. Her overall mission is to help people connect to their bodies, and access the limitless wisdom within.
Lyssette Horne is a black queer, artist, activist, and filmmaker. As a former homeless youth and graduate of the Reciprocity Foundation, Lyssette developed a love for yoga and meditation. She credits her first acupuncture treatment as the first time she felt “at home in her body”. Armed with new tools, Lyssette spoke out on the many ways trauma manifests in black and brown LGBTQ homeless youth. Acupuncture treatments, yoga and mental health services have been supportive in speaking and finding the courage to heal.
Inspired by the works of Audre Lorde, Lyssette strives to make self care and healing accessible to those in need and reduce barriers to healing.
Lyssette’s activism has led to many creative endeavors including an Emmy nominated short documentary about the myths and causes related to youth homelessness. They were also named one of the ‘Top Forty Under 40’ by The Advocate magazine and their work was featured on the cover of Gay City News.
Lyssette says, “By prioritizing my healing and my truth I give permission for others to commit to their healing journey and show up authentically.
Julie Fernandez
Director of Curriculum Development and Mentorship
Julie Fernandez is the Lead Trainer at Exhale to Inhale and is the Primary Trauma Therapist with the Hope Integrative Psychiatry team where she helps clients feel safe in their bodies, comfortable in the world, and embodied, integrated and whole. Julie has experience working with at-risk teenage girls, disadvantaged youth in inner city schools, at eating disorder centers, as well as domestic violence shelters and rape-crisis centers. Julie discovered yoga after struggling with abuse that led to anxiety, depression, self-harm and disordered eating. Through yoga, she found strength to begin her journey toward healing her relationship with her body and her Self, and has been sharing yoga ever since. Using tools and techniques from yoga, breathwork, mindfulness, and Somatic Experiencing, Julie encourages students to access their inner guidance and natural wisdom to reclaim their bodies and cultivate healing.
Sydney Keiler
Development Manager
Sydney Keiler is a dedicated Development and Communications Consultant helping community nonprofits expand their impact. In the past decade, she has worked with organizations across the country—including in New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, and Seattle—to support initiatives in youth development, basic needs access, rural healthcare, and sex education.
Sydney is deeply community-oriented and sees her role as a strategic partner to organizations driving meaningful change. She brings a thoughtful, collaborative approach to fundraising, storytelling, and outreach, ensuring that nonprofits have the tools they need to thrive.
Outside of work, you can find her crafting, biking around the city, and spending time enjoying the outdoors with friends and family.
Carly Lanning
Marketing & Communication Manager
Carly Lanning is a trauma-informed storyteller and founder of Voices Editorial LLC, a consultancy providing high-quality writing, editing, impact storytelling, and marketing services to mission-driven organizations and non-profits. She spent her communication career working across sectors including the philanthropy, innovation, digital media, and gender-based violence fields.
Carly is passionate about using storytelling to uplift and empower human connection, healing, and social change. For over a dedicated, Carly has combined her passionate for trauma-informed journalism and survivor advocacy, empowering the stories of survivors of sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and larger community education. Her work - primarily focused on mental health and gender-based violence, has been published in Psychology Today, Ms. Magazine, HelpGuide, and more.
Amy Apgar
Trainer & Wellness Instructor
Amy is a yoga teacher and teacher trainer who has been practicing and teaching yoga for over a decade. While studying Modern Dance in college, Amy practiced and taught a variety of mind/body modalities and became intrigued by the stress management, coping skills, and other therapeutic and mental health benefits that she, her students, and peers experienced through somatic movement. She moved to NYC shortly thereafter to pursue teaching yoga full time. Amy is a 500 Hour Advanced Level RYT with specialties in yin and trauma informed yoga, and she is experienced in mentoring teachers, creating and facilitating educational programming, and leading both private individual and small group sessions, as well as open level studio classes. Her approach to teaching is informed by feminism and social justice, and by yoga as a holistic practice for individual and collective healing of mind, body, and spirit.
Jenna Conner
Trainer & Wellness Instructor
Jenna first discovered yoga in college to ease stress and back pain, and never turned back. She comes from a dance background of 18 years, and has always had a passion for movement. Jenna fully lives and breathes yoga and tries to find some act of yoga in her everyday life. She offers vinyasa, hatha, restorative, prenatal, and trauma informed classes all throughout NYC. In her classes, you can expect to see pranayama, asana alignment, meditation, philosophy , creativity, and the invitation to come as you are. Jenna especially encourages others to see that yoga is more than a physical practice. Forever a student of yoga, there’s so much more she still aspires to learn. Jenna loves to travel and has learned and taught yoga in many parts of the world. In addition to yoga, Jenna is also a birth doula and Reiki Healer. She continues to work and spread her love of yoga and healing around NYC and the world, making it available to all types of people regardless of size, shape, color, culture, or ability.
Matty Espino
Trainer & Wellness Instructor
Matty is a 800-hour certified yoga instructor and teacher trainer with specialties in vinyasa, Lotus Flow™, chakras-based yoga, Ayurveda, and restorative yoga. He also holds certifications in Kids & Teens Yoga and Trauma-Informed Yoga. During a rather difficult time in Matty’s life, he was brought to his first NYC yoga class. Initially skeptical, he soon discovered the therapeutic benefits of consistently coming back onto the mat and, from then on, he began his journey towards healing. Matty believes that yoga has changed his life for the better and has made him stronger, healthier, and happier. He completed the initial 200-hour vinyasa training shortly after graduating his Masters program from Columbia University. Matty has become enamored with the art of teaching and has developed a strong passion for helping people to learn about their bodies and cultivate a deeper sense of peace within themselves. He hopes to inspire each of his students to feel comfortable, confident, and zero judgment. Matty can be found teaching yoga all across NYC. Off the mat, he is passionate about languages, cultures, cupcakes, and traveling all over the world.
Our Board
Vanessa Esparza
President
Elena Otero Keil
Vice President
Wael Younan
Treasurer
Megan Rounds
Secretary
Zoë LePage
Founder
Ashley Antler
Erica Barth
Bomsinae Kim
Rebecca Burgoyne
Stephanie Serafino
Christine Sachs
Vanessa Esparza is a partner and head of people & administration for Gladstone Place Partners, a financial communications advisory firm. She provides operational and administrative leadership to the firm as well as focusing on talent management, leadership development and employee communications and engagement.
Vanessa’s background includes nearly twenty years of business experience within corporates and startups. She is a certified leadership and personal development coach working with a range of clients, including entrepreneurs, creatives, and corporate and nonprofit executives who are purposeful about leading with intention.
Vanessa has been a longstanding supporter of Exhale to Inhale and its mission to empower survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. She knows first-hand the benefits of mindfulness and believes in the healing power of yoga and the space it helps create for self-connection.
Vanessa holds a master's in Human Capital Management and Development from New York University and a bachelor's in Political Science from the University of Colorado. She is a member of the International Coaching Federation and previously served on the board of Gift of Adoption’s New York Chapter. Originally from Colorado, Vanessa now splits her time between New York City and the Hudson Valley.
Elena is a founding partner at E&M; Advisory, an advisory firm primarily supporting middle-market companies and independent sponsors with a comprehensive suite of transaction execution services to achieve external financing on favorable and cost effective terms to support growth and strategy objectives. She has over ten years of experience as a corporate lawyer, specializing in financing transactions. Prior to founding E&M; Advisory in 2024, Elena worked as a Vice President and Associate General Counsel at a publicly traded real estate investment trust, as well as an associate in the New York banking and finance departments of several large law firms. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University. Elena has been involved with Exhale to Inhale since the organiztion's founding and is dedicated to the mission of supporting and empowering survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, including through trauma-informed yoga.
Wael is co-head of Sovereigns at TCW. In this role, he works closely with sovereign wealth clients globally to deliver differentiated solutions to help address their investment objectives. Prior to joining TCW in 2024, he spent over 13 years at Goldman Sachs in its Asset Management Division, most recently as a Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Strategic Partnerships and Wealth within the Multi-Asset Solutions business. Wael has spent a considerable amount of time focusing his life around three key pillars: sweating, connecting, and fundraising for worthwhile causes. Over a decade ago, he discovered that he could combine all of the above while pursuing his passion for fitness and giving back. Thus began Wael's involvement with several charitable organizations. He now leads efforts to raise funds and awareness for these causes through his daily job as a financial investment professional and through his fitness endeavors . Through his triathlons, Wael was introduced to yoga as a way to improve his balance and flexibility and other fitness activities. He became a 200 hour certified yoga teacher through Men Care Now (MCN) in 2020 and is continually inspired to deepen his knowledge of the body and the mind. Wael earned a BBA from The American University of Beirut (AUB) and an MBA from The American University of Washington, DC.
Megan has been involved with Exhale to Inhale for nearly five years, serving as the Chair of the Young Professionals Board for the past three years and a member of the YPB since joining the ETI Community in 2018. She is a survivor of domestic violence and as part of her own healing process, has sought to support other survivors of interpersonal violence through her involvement with ETI. Megan is from Southern California and has called NYC home for the last decade. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles and her JD from Fordham University School of Law. Megan is a Partner at the law firm Biedermann Hoenig Semprevivo, where she practices complex civil litigation. She also regularly counsels higher education institutions on employment issues and regulatory compliance, including how to adequately respond to and investigate complaints of sexual harassment and violence. Megan frequently conducts trainings and presentations in this area, as well as on issues of discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the workplace. Megan is also the Founder and CEO of Tidy Tribe, a professional organizing company that helps people seek serenity in their lives with the powerful practice of tidying up.
Zoë believes deeply in the healing power of yoga and Exhale to Inhale was born out of this belief in 2013. Someone she loved deeply was a long-ago survivor of domestic violence and in college several of her close friends were sexually assaulted. Witnessing the trauma her loved ones struggled with long after the physical effects of violence had faded, Zoë felt compelled to do something. Since yoga had served as a therapeutic tool for her both physically and emotionally, she hypothesized that it would also be helpful for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Created to honor her loved ones, what started as a senior project at Barnard College has grown to be the organization it is today, based on the idea that we have to let go—exhale—that which is no longer serving us, in order to take up—inhale—new possibilities.
Ashley has had a longstanding passion for advocating for women and marginalized individuals, since her undergraduate years, documenting the stories of female survivors of domestic violence. Ashley is Vice President of Legal - Head of Regulatory Affairs at SimpleHealth, a national telehealth company providing access to reproductive healthcare services. Prior to joining SimpleHealth, Ashley served as Associate General Counsel at McKinsey & Company in New York. Ashley has advised clients in the healthcare industry for over a decade, first as an associate at Hogan Lovells US, LLP and Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, LLP and then “in-house” as General Counsel at a healthcare start-up. In addition, she has provided pro bono legal services to LGBTQ individuals seeking asylum, and various non-profit organizations. Outside of work, Ashley is an enthusiastic runner and athlete. She has been a running guide for blind and disabled runners in road races, including the NYC Marathon, through Achilles International since 2013. She is a 200-hour certified yoga teacher and teaches with Exhale to Inhale. She holds a B.A. from Brown University and a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Ashley believes deeply in the power of movement to heal and empower and is grateful for the opportunity to support others on their journeys.
Erica is the Co-Owner and Director of Harlem Yoga Studio (HYS), founded in 2009 with the mission of making yoga accessible, welcoming and fun for Every Body living in Harlem. A thriving community, HYS offers a wide variety of classes for students of all ages, abilities, and body types. Erica holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from the Wharton School and a Masters degree in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. She brings her experience in Marketing, Project Management, and Organizational Effectiveness to her role at ETI. Having viewed the world with a systemic lens for many years, Erica sees the internal connection between body, mind and spirit as a mirror (and magnifier) of our connection to one another, and incorporates her understanding of yoga and her background in social organizational theory to help teams engage more effectively. She is continually inspired to deepen her knowledge of the body, mind, and spirit, and is profoundly grateful to her teachers both on and off the mat.
Bomsinae’s two passions are practicing yoga and serving survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. As former Executive Director and Board member of a non-profit that serves survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, Bomsinae is proud to be part of Exhale to Inhale with a mission that combines two of her passions. Bomsinae began her journey in the non-profit community in New York City first as a hotline volunteer for a domestic violence agency, then as Board member and Executive Director at various non-profit organizations. She is grateful to share her non-profit experiences with the Board of Exhale and Inhale. Bomsinae is a certified Jivamukti yoga teacher. She has also completed trauma-informed yoga teacher training from Exhale to Inhale.
Rebecca Burgoyne leads operating strategy for Goldman Sachs Asset Management. She started her career advising trading desks on market risk and capital requirements and she previously served as the chief operating officer of the firm’s multi-asset solutions business. Born and raised in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky, Rebecca learned from an early age the importance of supporting and empowering the members of her community, first from her grandmother, mother and aunts who served as community advocates, teachers and attorneys. Since moving to NYC in 2010, Rebecca has sought to improve the lives of women and girls in New York City. She currently serves on the Angel Alliance for the Lower East Side Girls Club.
Steph is passionate about women’s health and advocating for accessible sexual, reproductive, and maternal health care. She is a senior consultant within the Government and Public Services practice at Deloitte LLP. She has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Penn State University and holds a master of public health degree from New York University (NYU). While at NYU, Steph led a student-run clinical research and advocacy group, EMPOWER Lab, that studied the intersection of sexual and gender-based violence and health. Steph is an avid runner and participates every year in Philadelphia’s Broad Street Run 10 miler. Steph has been practicing yoga for over ten years and believes in the healing and mindfulness that comes with movement.
Christine Sachs is the President and Head Coach of Christine Sachs Coaching, a full-service executive coaching firm based in Manhattan and serving clients globally for more than a decade. Our proprietary and customized process supports professional and leadership development and organizational performance improvement. We support clients in a diverse range of industries including financial services, SAAS, media, technology, NGO/non-profits, and advertising. We are a sought-after partner for coaching and training in the areas of leadership development, manager training, developing women and diverse leaders, general professional advancement, DEIB, and leadership in remote/distributed workforces.