Katy VanDusen

Katy VanDusen first came to Monteverde in 1980, drawn to the confluence of rural living, tropical biodiversity, Tico friendliness and the Quaker Meeting. Since then she has continually focused on cultivating community through sustainable development, education, conservation, and spirituality. This has taken many forms, including yoga.

In 1982, she helped found CASEM, a local artisans cooperative. In the late 1980s she edited and published El Consejero Guanacasteco, a book by and for rural Costa Ricans about what they produce for home consumption. She helped to lead the Monteverde Friends School as it grew from 33 to 90 students in 15 years. Since 2004 she has been supporting eco-tourism development in the Emberá-Wounaan indigenous reservation in Darien, Panamá. She has served on multiple non-profit boards and is currently the clerk of the Montverde Friends Meeting. With her biologist husband, Frank Joyce, she raised a daughter and twin sons.

In 2006 she started teaching yoga and since then has completed two 200 hour certifications, one at the White Lotus Foundation with Ganga White and Tracy Rich and another with Seaside Yoga with Ashley Ludman and Nancy Goodfellow. She integrates a variety of styles of yoga into her practice including (but not limited to) Vinyasa, Anusara, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Yin, and Restorative. Katy works to make yoga accessible to all and in that spirit adapts her classes to whoever walks in the studio door. She is experienced at teaching beginners and advanced students in the same class and teaches bilingually as needed.