Our Teachers

Holly Kostura, IYCLV Director

B.S.N., CIYT – Level 3, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT

Holly has been practicing self-inquiry through the art, science and philosophy of classical Iyengar Yoga for twenty-five years. She began sharing the teachings of Yoga with others in 2002 and founded The Iyengar Center of the Lehigh Valley in 2004 with the intention of sharing the transformative power of Iyengar Yoga with her community.

The author of Your Year of Yoga: Learning to Love Practice, Holly was one of the youngest women in the world to receive the title “Senior Teacher” under the former certification structure. She shares freely and openly any insight that has come to her with those who are seeking transformation through this great discipline of redemption.

Holly has studied devotedly with her mentor, Patricia Walden, since the very first time she ever practiced Yoga. For more than a decade she also studied and apprenticed with Joan White at the B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga School of Central Philadelphia, assisting her in classes, workshops and teacher training in the USA and abroad.

Holly is a direct disciple of Geeta Iyengar and B.K.S. Iyengar, having studied with them in the USA, Canada and China.  She travels to Pune, India to practice and train with the Iyengar family at the renowned Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI).

Holly’s deep dedication to her own practice inspires and informs her teaching, which is clear, compassionate, and steeped in philosophy. Her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and special interest in anatomy and physiology, combined with her depth of knowledge of the subtle body, give Holly the unique ability to view her students from a place of wholeness.

Yoga is a path of transformation and absolute freedom that has far-reaching effects beyond the limits of the physical body. It is Holly’s intention to share with students how the practice of Yoga reveals the infinite source of health and joy contained within them.

Gabrielle Nembhard

B.S., CIYT – Level 1, RYT 200

Gabrielle has been practicing Yoga for fun since she was a child. In 2012 she began studying with Richard Schachtel at The Center for Yoga in Seattle where she apprenticed and taught. 

She has been studying at the Iyengar Yoga Center of the Lehigh Valley with her mentor, Holly Kostura, since 2021 and became a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher in 2023.  

For Gabrielle, the practice of Yoga is deeply transformative on every level, bringing health, joy, peace, clarity, strength, and wisdom, gifts of the practice that she hopes to help others receive.  Her teaching is warm and accessible, and she especially enjoys introducing beginners to the Iyengar method and witnessing the incredible progress that can be made over the course of just a few months with consistent practice.