Meet the Teachers

  • Chris Gilmore is lead instructor and owner of the Lab Yoga studio. His classes are creative, dynamic and inclusive leading students to evolution they never thought possible. Chris’s incomparable style stems from studying under transformative instructors, combining new improvised movement patterns with traditional yoga postures and connecting deeply with his students.

    A lifelong competitive tennis player, he brings athleticism into every class while deconstructing every movement into something accessible for each student. Chris is an advocate for yoga as the physical, mental, and spiritual framework to optimize life. He has studied yoga, meditation, handstands, business, and life around the world. Chris authentically shares his life experiences in classes, trainings, specialty workshops, retreats, and private events.

    A native Chicagoan, Chris started his career as a stock and bond trader in the city’s bustling financial community. He found yoga as a means to combat the daily stresses of his career and caregiving for an ailing parent. Chris holds a Master’s in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s in Economics from Miami University. When not on the mat or at the studio, Chris loves live music, Chicago’s many amazing restaurants, Southwest Michigan beaches, and his wheaten terrier, Piper.

  • As an international traveling yogi, Wade leads retreats, teacher trainings, workshops and events around the globe and is known for his innovative approach and inspirational teachings. He creates a sense of community with heart and humor and challenges students to explore their full potential during his uniquely sequenced Vinyasa classes. The Vinyasa flow fusion is derived from his travels and from the inspirations of his senior teachers, always incorporating aspects of the other limbs of yoga … meditation, dharma, bhakti and elements of thai and acro yoga into his teachings. His style is structured, but at the same time playful, always offering options of openness, depth and strength so that everyone will be appropriately challenged and able to share their energy. He is guided by the dharmic principles of Advaita or ‘oneness and non separation’. Wade strives to find interesting ways to keep others inspired and connected and receiving inspiration from others is what keeps his love for yoga alive.

  • Mina is a dedicated to her journey of self-exploration. She integrates yoga and sound, providing moments of deep self-reflection with her mindful meditations and energetic vinyasa flows. Mina continues to deepen her practices by completing an additional 400-hours of yoga teacher training this year, studying directly under Carmen Aguilar (Founder of cYoga) & Cameron Shayne (Founder of Budokon Mixed Movement Arts). Her classes ask you to detach from the external world and over-stimulation of your senses, so that you may reconnect to your breath and become one with what is. With consistent practice, you will observe, as the seer, the true magic of transformation on your mat and in your life journey.

  • Nicole was an avid athlete growing up participating in volleyball, soccer, and marathons. She was devastated after a volleyball injury led to two ACL knee surgeries and difficult rehabilitation. That is when she deepened her yoga practice bringing tremendous healing, strength, and awareness into her life. She believes in the power of connecting mind, body and spirit through the breath.

    While she loves to advance her own physical asana practice, she also craves the stillness of the restorative practice. Expect the best of yang and yin in her thoughtful intelligently sequenced classes where props are often used to support or strengthen a pose.

    Along with her full teaching schedule of multiple Hatha styles, Nicole leads yoga workshops and trainings across the Chicagoland area.

  • Anna has practiced yoga for 12 years. Initially, Asana brought balance to her rock climbing and weightlifting. After quitting all fitness hobbies in graduate school, she slowly rejoined the movement world. During a visit to Chicago, Anna found her community at The Lab Yoga! She moved to town and immediately leaned into the yoga practice.

    After earning her 200 RYT, she has spent time exploring other asana practices, learning mobility with strength and conditioning, and working as a rehab technician. Expect a mixture of intentional holds and traditional flow, increasing your body awareness, and leaning into the subtleties of postures through strength work.

  • Ali is a vinyasa and yin yoga teacher & energy practitioner passionate about mending the relationships between mind, body, and soul.

    Her physical practice aims to find the balance between movement (yang) and stillness (yin). Offering modifications for all levels, she welcomes students to explore and challenge themselves while listening to their bodies without judgment.

    Whether it is through physical or energetic practices, she believes everybody has the power to heal themselves with the right support, resources, and guidance. She aims to make health, wellness, and holistic modalities more accessible and approachable for all.

    Ali grew up on the beaches of the Jersey Shore and spent time living in Arizona, France, and New York City, before finding her way to Chicago. Ali is a certified Reiki Master and has a background in public relations, where she helps others tell their stories to diverse audiences through integrated communication strategies.

  • Angela is a vinyasa yoga teacher and an avid practitioner of contortion and aerial yoga to aerial sports/aerial arts. The goal of her physical practice is to use asana as a way to quiet the mind and find stillness. She invites students to challenge themselves and explore what they are capable of.

  • Joanne Barrett teaches integrated movement, yoga and The Schatz Method (corrective functional movement) in Chicago. Classes focus on a blend of experiences including Ashtanga Method, Anusara, dance, gymnastics and somatic movement. She has been a yoga teacher, primarily a practitioner of the Ashtanga Yoga Method since 2009.

    Joanne is trained in Somatic Movement Methods from Carol Swann/ The Moving On Center (Berkeley) and Diane Elliot, where she studied Experiential Anatomy, Bartenieff Fundamentals and Body- Mind Centering. She has a BFA in dance and had a 30 yr. performing career in concert dance. Joanne is a mother, artist and committed to building community through her practice and discipline of movements.

  • Karla Huffman is a 500hr. E-RYT, who has led yoga teacher trainers and Hatha yoga classes throughout the United States and beyond its borders. 

    She has a relaxed and focused style that encourages her students to pursue the deepest benefits that their practice can provide while indulging their mental and spiritual selves throughout the class as she instructs them.  A patient, intentional rise to a powerful flow is the best way to explain her approach to yoga, as well as life. 


    Karla Huffman is a 500hr. E-RYT, who has led yoga teacher trainers and Hatha yoga classes throughout the United States and beyond its borders. 

    She has a relaxed and focused style that encourages her students to pursue the deepest benefits that their practice can provide while indulging their mental and spiritual selves throughout the class as she instructs them.  A patient, intentional rise to a powerful flow is the best way to explain her approach to yoga, as well as life.

  • Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Tomoko would eventually move to New York City to fulfill a dream of dancing and take the training program at several schools. Inspired as a young girl by Broadway musicals, she would study dance, movement, and voice and perform professionally with a theater troupe. She soon joined aerial dance and performed off-Broadway with “Fly By Night” and “Aloft” later in Chicago.

    Tomoko has pursued her love of Yoga for 25+ years. She became certified as a teacher, taking training from 2002-2003 for 200 hours in NY. She has taught yoga across Japan, Chicago and the Midwest, the New York metro area, and as far away as London, England. She has also taught yoga teacher training in Japan and for ten years taught both Yoga and dance to the deaf both in Japan and America.

    Tomoko has also studied Oriental medicine and healing from a Japanese teacher and mentor and became certified in Makko Ho, a Japanese stretching art, and bodywork. She has continued teaching Makko Ho for more 25+ years.

    Tomoko loves to challenge herself and discover her potential. She encourages students to dive into their own inner journey with joy and discover something new about themselves through yoga practice.

  • Teresa has incorporated fitness into her life from an early age!  This passion started with her love for competitive volleyball. She believes all movements, including adventures and sports, are fundamentals needed in our daily lives. Her yoga journey began in 2020 while doing virtual yoga in her living room. After several years of consistent practice, deep meditation, and her travels, she embarked on a journey to become a certified Yoga teacher.

    Now an RYT-200 teacher, she is ready to share the gifts she has received and developed with the world.

    In her classes, she loves to create a workshop-style flow allowing each yogi to build their confidence to reach a peak posture. Each practice is carefully curated to warm up and strengthen the body to get into each posture easily. She incorporates a spirit of playfulness and a dose of inspiration to help you deepen your practice while twisting out the negative energy. Expect to leave feeling deeply nourished and fulfilled in your practice! 

  • A lifelong advocate for holistic well-being, Ingrid believes in fusing breath with movement to cultivate strength, patience, intuition, and grace.

    Ingrid developed her athleticism as a child through ballet and running. She later gravitated towards yoga as an escape from the pressures of her university studies and high-intensity career. Ultimately, yoga instilled a profound sense of peace and perseverance, inspiring Ingrid to deepen her practice.

    Ingrid’s fluid classes invite students to build fire and heat while simultaneously calming the mind. Ingrid draws from a range of asana styles and offers options for students of all levels.

    Ingrid holds BAs in economics and music from the University of Chicago, an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and her yoga teacher certification from the Lab.

  • Piper is a 3-year-old Wheaten Terrier and avid Lab goer. You can catch Piper attending classes and teacher trainings!

  • Teaches Fridays at 5:30 p.m.