THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PURPOSE
Meet The Team
Michelle "Shelley" Lorenze
E-RYT500
Michelle Lorenze is a Yoga Alliance RYT-500 and ERYT-200 certified teacher from Morgantown, WV. She recently completed her RYT 500 certification from the Himalayan Institute. She teaches Vinyasa style yoga. Michelle’s classes are open to any level of experience. She creates a welcoming and loving environment in all of her classes. She loves to watch new students evolve and grow in their practice. She loves spending time with her husband, four daughters, , dogs and cats. In her spare time she loves researching her family tree, gardening and has recently taken up golf.
Donnie Murray
RYT200
Donnie is a nine year veteran of the United States Army and WV Army National Guard. He found his Love for yoga at the Veterans Readjustment Center after his counselor suggested it to help with his anxiety and PTSD. It wasn’t long before he felt the healing benefits. He started teaching August 2019 and completed RYT 200 training. His passion is to teach Yoga’s healing power to other veteran’s. When he isn’t on his mat he enjoys riding his Harley, camping, hiking and anything in nature.
David Ervin
RYT200
David Ervin is a veteran, writer, and editor with a love of history and nature. He took his RYT-200 training through Moonbow Wellness and Yoga in 2022 with the initial goal of deepening his own knowledge and practice of Yoga. He’s found Yoga to be a source of strength, clarity, and peace. His classes challenge students to find stillness amidst effort as they explore the practice and its philosophical underpinnings.
Audrey Lutz
RYT200
Audrey Lutz has been practicing yoga for over 6 years and earned her level one training from YOGAFIT in 2015. She completed her RYT-200 training through the University of Wellness in the spring of 2020. Audrey started her yoga-teaching journey in 2015 providing classes to Veterans enrolled at the VA medical center. Her goal is to bring awareness to others of how our stress response can be calmed by connection of movement and our breath to achieve a sense of peace in the body and mind. She is passionate about healing and self-care and maintains a heavy focus on the importance of self-compassion and finding joy and purpose in life. She believes life is all about balance and finding ways to release negative energy in your body with movement. In addition to serving as a yoga teacher: she is a mother to 2 boys, wife to a loving & supportive husband and is a clinical therapist.
Gabrielle Merandi
RYT200
A Morgantown native, Gabrielle started practicing yoga in 2008 and achieved her 200-hr YTT at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Seminarhaus in Reith bei Kitzbühel, Austria in 2016. This program equally emphasized Bhakti, Karma, Raja, and Jnana Yoga. She continued her yoga education in trauma-informed and restorative yoga, with the most education in Shaktirasa Yoga (a feminine-form yoga practice). Gabrielle is also a certified Ayurvedic Health Counselor, Reiki Master, and holds a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology.
Jess Lowe
RYT200
Jess has been practicing yoga for over 10 years and completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training in June of 2023. She loves teaching because it helps her to continue her own learning and connect with the community. Jess uses Nature to inspire her classes, often blending the power of the seasons, elements, planetary energies, and the energy of the subtle body to create a nurturing space for people to explore and deepen their connection and understanding of themselves & the world around them.