Who We Are
Karen Eidem
Teaches: Hatha
Certification: 200-Hour RYT
Karen Eidem’s spiritual journey began many moons ago, with yoga as a part of that journey since she was in her 20s. The earliest part of her journey began with parents who introduced Karen to Himalayan and Tibetan philosophy, practice, and spiritual studies. Her first practice included meditation and pranayama (breath work) exercises); while navigating postpartum depression, she found yoga and knew that this practice would fill an element she felt was missing in her life. A desire to share similar results with others is what inspired Karen to begin study as an instructor. At Prairie Soul, Karen teaches vinyasa, hatha, and yin; a one-time studio owner, Karen also has experience with children’s workshops, family yoga, and meditation. Karen hopes her students find practice that opens connections to their true self and frees them from limitations of the mind. She wants yoga to remind her students that each person is more than a body or a name. A recent arrival to the Brookings area, Karen is a mother of two and is married to a supportive and loving man. An entrepreneur at heart, she has worked as a professional organizer and does ongoing work as an interpreter and translator. Karen has also translated a love of music into performing as a singer with three different bands. Karen is excited for the opportunity Prairie Soul provides for her to help and serve others, and she is honored to walk the path with students and help guide their practice.
Work on a hobby farm keeps life pretty fast-paced for Prairie Soul instructor Emelie Haigh, but yoga has given her a regular chance to step back, breathe, and focus on herself. She describes yoga as being amazing for her personal health and wellness. Emelie took that energizing experience in personal practice and achieved completion of her 200 Hour RYT through Better Together, which was hosted on-site at Prairie Soul in the spring of 2019. With that certification, she now teaches hatha and vinyasa classes. Emelie’s at-home network includes her partner, Tim, and two kids, Kyla and Evan. Home on the hobby farm also includes four cats and two dogs, as well as chickens, ducks, guineas, bees, llamas, mini donkeys, a mini horse, and a big horse (“for added zest”). When not tending to the farm animals or practicing yoga, Emelie also enjoys cooking and entertaining friends and applying her self-described “not green but olive drab at best” thumb to gardening projects, especially with native plants. Emelie hopes that Prairie Soul students find a place to belong when they enter the studio; just as her own yoga practice adds focus to her life, she wants students to find peace and calm in their connection to yoga.
Emelie Haigh
Teaches:
Certification: 200-Hour RYT
Heidi Hopewell
Teaches: Vinyasa, Power, Sculpt
Certification: 200-Hour RYT
Yoga has a lot to do with personal balance for Prairie Soul instructor Heidi Hopewell. Heidi has always found working out in general to be a therapeutic practice that helps with stress and anxiety. She has gravitated toward running and yoga in particular because these practices allow her to get away from the world around her, address what’s going on in her mind, process things, and hopefully make peace and find clarity. This appreciation of yoga’s value leads Heidi to a range of yoga practice that includes both good workout and gentle or restorative styles. Her specific Prairie Soul instructor roles include teaching vinyasa, power, and sculpt classes. Currently a 200 Hour RYT with a specialization in vinyasa, Heidi’s five-year plan includes attaining her 500 Hour RYT certification. Students in Heidi’s classes might see an occasional visit from her husband, Dave, also an active participant in balanced forms of fitness and wellness. The couple keeps active with Heidi’s three young children, Phoenix, Zoey, and Zion. Heidi loves supporting SDSU and building relationships through her work at the SDSU Foundation. She sees Prairie Soul as a place of relationships, as well, hoping that all students come through the doors and find their own needs met at their own levels within a community of friends. Heidi finds that her yoga practice helps her be calmer, happier, and more balanced, and she wants Prairie Soul students to find those same benefits in their yoga journey.
Mandy Lyons’ appreciation and love for yoga practice has grown continually since she was first drawn to yoga around 2007. In addition to the daily benefits that have come with her long-time yoga practice, Mandy credits yoga with turning around a state of depression and anxiety that came with caring for her ailing father in recent years. Mandy sees her dive into teacher training as a gift that keeps on giving in her life. Mandy currently holds her 200 Hour certification and is now focused on achieving her 500 Hour certification. She thrives on the learning that comes with workshops and trainings, and would like to become a certified Kundalini instructor in the future. Mandy’s current range of instruction at Prairie Soul include restorative, gentle, vinyasa, power vin, yin, and occasional sculpt classes; she also teaches courses through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Mandy focuses on making sure all of her students feel safe, welcomed, and challenged in ways that include, but go beyond, the physical. Mandy and her husband fell in love while touring with the band Phish; she is now momma to two amazing boys, Chet and Wyatt. The family cares for a wide range of animals, and Mandy considers herself very skilled at milking goats. Mandy recently made a decision to maximize the time she spends doing things that set her soul on fire, and her time with yoga practice and instruction and Prairie Soul continues to fit that description!
Mandy Lyons
Teaches: Vinyasa & Family
Certification: 200-Hour RYT
Marcie Mizera
Teaches: Vinyasa and Family
Certification: 200-Hour RYT
There are many reasons that Marcie Mizera loves yoga, but the biggest one is that yoga speaks to the soul; yoga makes Macie want to be a better human. A graphic designer and small business owner in her life outside of being a Prairie Soul instructor, Marcie finds a safe place for self-reflection in her yoga practice. At any point in a given day, she can come to her mat and find what her soul most needs in that moment. Marcie currently holds her 200 Hour RYT and teaches vinyasa with peak poses. She also practices ashtanga, has a deep love for arm balances, and appreciates how yoga can challenge the body and mind while also providing relief, release, and ease. When students enter Prairie Soul, Marcie hopes they find a true home. She wants Prairie Soul to be a place where students come to discover who they are and what they are capable of. Her students can also seek the same strength, grounding, balance, patience, and humility that Marcie says she has connected to at Prairie Soul. Though she gets lots of joy from dogs, great pizza, woodworking, and witty puns, it’s yoga that helps slow life down for Marcie and bring her a sense of peace.
Prairie Soul’s founder, Megan Nelson, began her yoga journey as a high school student and has developed that first experience into a long-term commitment to yoga practice and instruction. In August 2015, Megan taught her first paid yoga class to a group of beginners outdoors in a local park. That initial experience started the path to today, where Prairie Soul is Megan’s sole business focus. Founding the studio and coordinating its instructors and daily rhythm has given Megan the opportunity to pair a lifelong personal commitment to fitness with an equally strong passion for sharing yoga and fitness with others.
Megan’s introduction to personal fitness came through running; she jumped into cross country as a middle school student, and running still brings her joy by providing the opportunity for ongoing challenges. Megan has run multiple marathons and half-marathons, along with a long list of other 10-mile and shorter-distance road races. She also practices CrossFit, where she has achieved a 300-lb. deadlift PR.
Though Megan first tried out yoga attending a weekly fitness center class during a free period during her senior year of high school, yoga became a central part of her life after she welcomed her first baby in 2014. For Megan, yoga was a method to regain strength and body confidence, improve mental health, and focus inward in ways that allowed her to become a better wife, mom, and friend. Megan felt drawn to help others find the same benefits she did from her own growing yoga practice which made yoga instruction the natural next step. Megan completed her 200-hour yoga certification in April 2015 and has since added her 75-hour prenatal yoga certification. Ever in search of the complete challenge, Megan is currently working toward her 500-hour certification.
As Megan’s yoga practice has grown, so has her family, which now includes her husband Matt and two children, Otto and Olive. Rounding out Megan’s active household are loveable doggos Lucy (Megan’s “first baby girl”) and Gus (a hunting dog who sometimes acts more like a cat).
In her commitment to Prairie Soul and its students, Megan’s goal is to provide a place for community and self-reflection. In the same way that yoga enhanced Megan’s life as a new mom and brought good feelings to that early class in the park, she hopes Prairie Soul brightens the day of each person who walks through the doors of the studio.
Megan Nelson
Founder
Teaches: Vinyasa, Chair
Certification: 200-Hour RYT, 85-Hour RYT
