MEET THE TEAM
"The potential of Therapeutic Yoga is limitless."
Rodney Steman
CEO
As the Founder of The Yoga Community Project, Rodney spent 35 years of his career in the corporate IT sector; the last 12 as a senior project manager for IBM. Rodney's passion in bringing Yoga to the masses is due to his own challenges
dealing with addiction which started in his late teens. It wasn't until his mid-twenties that he transitioned from being a full blown addict into what he calls his dry addict years. In 1994, Rodney attended his first yoga class at Grapevine Rec Center to open up hips and shoulders to improve his golf swing. Within a few months he came to understand that the combination of yoga and meditation could help him get rid of his demons and also accelerate his therapy process. Rodney has been a yogi ever since. He strongly attributes his practice of yoga to slowing down the deterioration of both of his knees due to arthritis and to his speedy recovery after knee replacement surgery.
Rodney's transition into the non-profit sector came about due to his love of production which eventually led him to co-found Earth Rhythms in 2007. Earth Rhythms premier event was Winter SolstiCelebration and for 7 of the 20 year run, Rodney produced and directed the event. At the time Winter SolstiCelebration ended it was the second largest event of it's kind in the country. His world vision is to create opportunity for community through yoga related events and provide yoga as a therapeutic outlet to those seeking relief from life's challenges. On a personal note, Rodney and his wife have been married for 33 years.
"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." -Andrew Carnegie
Our Values
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What We BELIEVE In
Loyalty
Integrity
Team
Vision
Compassion
Commitment
Community
Respect
Self-Care
Customer Service (donor service)
Jennifer Rhodes
Interim COO
"BE Bold. BE Better. BE Best."
Jennifer is an accomplished professional with more than 20 years’ experience in providing organizational leadership and innovative thinking to global, national, and local non-profit and for profit organizations.
She has always been attracted to organizations undergoing major transition and in need of bold organizational strategic realignment, which, with her input and leadership, have all resulted in both financial and programmatic expansion. Simply put, her practical application to high stakes fundraising programs and theoretical expertise in nonprofit program development and evaluation have taken the organizations she’s worked with from better to best. Jennifer’s core beliefs are inter-woven into every element of her work which are grounded in ethics, education of industry standards, transparency, collaboration, partnerships and independent accountability. She believes in being proactive, leveraging relationships and building them into mutually rewarding partnerships.
Brook Cheatham
EVP of Programs and Services
"Empowered. A word I live by."
Brook believes that all of us have the ability to overcome things in our lives. Defining moments in our "story" give us a choice, the courage to either become our truth or live in
a lie. Before yoga came into her life, she was a young mother, strapped to a corporate job, with a laundry list full of guilt, shame and baggage from a turbulent youth. Fitness goals led her to yoga, and while she became physically strong, she slowly began to notice changes occurring in her actual nature. The baggage from her past started to slowly melt away. As she began to realize who she was deep down, a deep beauty started to unfold within her where she once felt only pain. She believes that her past does not define her, and through her experiences of all things yoga, she is blessed to work toward a path of empowering others with the knowledge that all you have to do is look within for your truth. As a yoga teacher, Brook guides you through this process and knows yoga strips away what is not real, replaces it with love, and gives you back what you truly are at your core, your spirit.