For over two decades, Annie has taught yoga, meditation, and yoga philosophy to thousands of yoga students in public classes at Sun & Moon, in corporate settings, in private one-on-one sessions, as part of basic and advanced teacher trainings, and on retreats. 

While still teaching meditation and philosophy, Annie is currently on sabbatical from teaching asana while she pursues a Master of Divinity degree focused on Buddhist Chaplaincy through Naropa University. 

During her former career as a high school English teacher, Annie began practicing yoga in the 1990s in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in a casual apartment setting with a small group of neighbors and one devoted teacher. For five years straight, the group gathered weekly for yoga postures and meditation on a simple wood floor with one cotton blanket each, and much laughter and mutual support.

After her twins were born in 1999, Annie moved to Arlington, VA, and completed teacher training in 2002 at Sun & Moon Yoga, with the intention of bringing yoga philosophy back into the high school classroom. She designed a literature/writing class called Philosophy of Yoga at HB Woodlawn Secondary Program from 2008 to 2017, which students took as their English elective.

Over the years Annie’s role at Sun & Moon has evolved, and since 2010 she has served as Studio Director, overseeing both studio locations with 100-plus classes per week; quarterly programs including workshops, teacher trainings, and visiting guest teachers; marketing and communications; and a large community volunteer program.

Annie is also the co-founder of Awakening Yoga Spaces, a coalition of yoga and wellness communities committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the yoga world, with a primary focus on making Yoga Teacher Trainings more accessible to members of the BIPOC community as a way of dismantling structures of racism and marginalization.

Annie lives in Arlington with her partner Amir Tahami (senior teacher and co-owner of Sun & Moon), their fluffy Persian cats, and the rescue dog and snuggle-artist Currently Known As Prince. The now-adult twins can often be found nearby, sharing meals, dog walks, and a yoga class now and then.

In his weekly public classes, yoga therapy workshops, and private one-on-one yoga therapy sessions,  Amir works attentively with students who want an enhanced quality of life through a plainspoken and sensible approach to health and well-being. His innovative techniques blending traditional Indian and Thai yoga influences with restorative postures, therapeutic applications, and somatic movement help students move gently forward on a path of healing, and encourages taking the mindfulness of yoga practice into everyday life. He has thousands of hours of training with teachers including Aadil Palkhivala, Tias Little, Rodney Yee, Doug Keller, and Leslie Kaminoff, and is also certified in Thai Yoga Therapy. Amir is an avid amateur hockey player, recently fulfilled a lifelong dream to design and build his own custom home, and is also known to herd cats.

Amir provides abundant and detailed instructions for how to move the human body, and takes his classes and workshops through the paces to practice alignment, energy movement, and clarity of mind. “Paying attention to the body is the hardest part,” he says. But when he’s dictating just exactly what to do with your shoulder blades – like leading with the blades in cat and cow, as opposed to the spine, or how to create space between each vertebra or what to do to stretch your connective tissue – the mind becomes laser-focused. He offers wisdom on anatomy and how to bring the lessons of healing into daily life – for knees, neck, back, shoulders, hips, and other parts that have been beaten down from work, injury, disease, aging, or disuse. He provides the tools to practice these maneuvers at home and then wants you to go out there and live: play sports, climb mountains, expand your reach with a body that can.