Instructors
Debbie Abell
Integrated Teacher Training (ITT) Certified Pilates Instructor – Professional Level
Debbie began her journey into fitness at UCSB where she studied kinesiology. In 1990 she took this knowledge and began teaching fitness classes and training in San Francisco. Debbie moved to Novato with her husband in 1993. Over the last 18 years she has enjoyed training and teaching fitness classes at the Rolling Hills Club. In 1998 Debbie pursued her Pilates Mat certification through The Physical Mind Institute with Jean Sullivan. She continued to study and grow in Pilates while raising her 3 boys. In 2008 Debbie began her apparatus studies and recently completed her certification through ITT with Jean Sullivan at A Body of Work in San Francisco. She is continuing her advanced studies with Elizabeth Larkam at the Rolling Hills Club, Jean Sullivan through her mastery trainings at a Body Of work and mentoring with Madeline Black in Sonoma county.
Melissa Adkison
Melissa has extensive experience as a Swim Instructor at Rolling Hills Club. As a competitive swimmer with the Mud Sharks Masters Team Melissa has won High Point Medals in Pacific Masters, All American Swimmer and has placed in US Masters National Meets. She currently teaches water aerobics, group swim lessons and helps coach the Swimfit program at Rolling Hills Club. In her spare time Melissa is a professional artist/teacher. Melissa combines a great ability to teach the technical aspects of swimming with a friendly style of coaching that helps swimmers learn to swim fast in a fun and enjoyable environment.
Janna Barkin
Janna has been a practicing yogini for over 20 years, and she delights in creating a safe space for others to experience the power and grace of yoga. Janna’s Anusara-inspired classes invite a joyful opening in body, mind, and heart. She combines a playful passion for the practice with a strong understanding of universal alignment principles, as taught by John Friend, founder of Anusara Yoga. Janna teaches yoga all over Marin County, and has been teaching at Rolling Hills since 2005. Prenatal yoga and Mom and Baby yoga are some of her specialties. Janna leads yoga retreats locally and abroad. Visit her website at JannaBarkinYoga.googlepages.com
Barb Brown
ACE Certified
Fitness has been a significant part of Barb’s life for the last 34 years. During her career, she has managed two fitness companies; The Bod Squad, Inc. and Steppin’ Out. Barb has taught a variety of classes including pregnancy, kids’ aerobics, muscle, spinning, stretch, step, and regular aerobics. Currently at Rolling Hills Club, Barb teaches our Muscle Madness and Movement, Muscle & Stretch class. Teaching students of all levels is her passion. When she is not teaching exercise, Barb substitute teaches and enjoys playing tennis and reading.
Winnie Comfort
Growing up in the country, Winnie learned at an early age the importance and value of community. The theme of community and providing an emotionally, physically and socially satisfying experience for each individual is one that she has carried for 23 years at Rolling Hills Club. As an instructor of Water Fitness and Kindergarten PE Specialist for almost 30 years and as a manager, she has followed this model of providing opportunity for change and growth in a nurturing environment.
Debbie Gleeson
ACE Certified / Schwinn® Cycling Certified / Flirty Girl Fitness® “Flirtification”
Debbie loves helping people achieve their fitness goals. She finds coaching group exercise classes a very rewarding job. The best part is helping people feel great about working out and see them happy! Debbie’s fitness experience goes back 20 plus years. She has even had the privilege to be part of Aerobics competitions back in the day. Debbie’s classes are always well prepared and thought out. She continues to attend fitness seminars yearly to keep updated on the latest fitness trends and skills.
Tori Graw
Introduction to come.
Heather Hartley
ACE Certified
Heather has been teaching group exercise classes since 1989 and joined Rolling Hills Club in 2007. Heather teaches a variety of classes including our early morning Bootcamp class, Cycle, F.I.T and Senior Fitness. In the early nineties Heather received a Silver Medal in the Bay Area Reebok Aerobic Championship. Heather truly enjoys working with all ages and levels (especially her amazing Senior exercisers and her hard working boot campers!) She enjoys connecting with members and seeing their progress. Her workouts are tough but always FUN!
Amy Hesla
Amy has been teaching with Rolling Hills Club 20 years this year. Amy enjoys teaching both water aerobics and indoor cycling.
Beth Huizenga
Beth finds doing yoga practically beneficial and endlessly fascinating. She loves to share her passion for yoga with others, from first-timers and beginners to devoted practitioners, on Tuesday and Saturday mornings at RHC. Having turned 50 in 2011, Beth credits her yoga practice for helping her to feel vibrant, energetic and grounded while also managing and preventing injury. A radio broadcaster since the mid-80s, Beth worked at Radio Bangkok for 3 years and became certified in Thai massage at Wat Pho in 1993. She then immersed herself in Iyengar (alignment-based) classes, workshops and retreats for ten years with numerous master teachers while working at KFOG and later KQED. Beth also studied yoga philosophy, Pranayama and Ayurveda at the California Institute of Integral Studies and did her yoga teacher training through Yoga Tree in San Francisco following a year of studying Anusara yoga at the Yoga Kula in San Francisco. She continues to study Acroyoga (a blend of acrobatics, yoga and Thai massage) and to offer workshops in Partner Yoga, a beautiful way to work out through give and take and learning to trust and communicate well.
Melissa Lakritz
Melissa Lakritz is an enthusiastic and motivated teacher who has been practicing yoga for 11 years. She uses precise instruction, alignment with breath, and fluidity of movement so that her students feel focused, empowered, and connected to their core. Learning how to generate energy into different parts of the body helped Melissa relax and release tension both on and off the mat. Her passion for asana practice led her to complete a 200 hour teacher training and become a RYT through Yoga Alliance. Melissa continues to be inspired by the transformation that yoga has provided in her life. She feels blessed to have the opportunity to share her passion and teach others how to unite mind, body and spirit through Yoga.
Elizabeth Larkam
Pilates Method Alliance Gold Certified, Gyrotonic®, Gyrokinesis®, Feldenkrais®, Franklin,
Balanced Body Faculty, CoreAlign Master Instructor
Elizabeth Larkam is internationally recognized as an innovator of mind body movement
techniques for therapeutic, athletic, fitness, performing arts and academic settings. For 25
years she has worked within organizations to develop new applications for Pilates techniques.
While a Dancemedicine Specialist at Center for Sports Medicine, Saint Francis Memorial
Hospital 1985-2000 she created Pilates protocols for orthopedic, spine and chronic pain
diagnoses. As Director of Pilates & Beyond for Western Athletic Clubs, 2000-2010 Elizabeth
developed the internationally acclaimed Mind & Body Center within The San Francisco Bay
Club where she served as Pilates & Yoga Director. Since 2008 she has been working with
wounded soldiers at rehabilitation centers in San Diego, Copenhagen and Tel Aviv, mentoring
physical therapists who work with polytrauma patients. Elizabeth joined YogaWorks in 2010 to
develop new programs in Pilates mat and apparatus.
Elizabeth began her study of Pilates in 1985 while teaching dance at Stanford University. A Gold Certified Pilates Method Alliance teacher, she was educated by the first generation Pilates teachers Ron Fletcher, Eve Gentry, Carola Trier, Romana Kryzanowska, Bruce King and Alan Herdman. Elizabeth is a guild certified
Feldenkrais practitioner, Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis™ instructor, Franklin Method teacher, OM Yoga instructor and CoreAlign Master Instructor. She received her bachelor’s and master’s education at Stanford University.
Elizabeth worked as a Pilates and Dancemedicine Specialist with the San Francisco Ballet and Cirque de Soleil, a lecturer at the University of San Francisco in Exercise and Sports Science and a Reebok Master Trainer. She is a mind-body spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise and a contributor to
PilatesStyle. As co-founder and co-owner of Polestar Education Elizabeth developed Pilates curriculum for
clinical and fitness professionals.
When Balanced Body Education was founded in 1985 she became a Master Teacher conducting courses throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Since 1992 Elizabeth has created 30 instructional DVDs for fitness, therapeutic, education and home markets. As program director of Balanced Body Pilates, she developed the instructional video series that launched the Pilates Allegro Reformer and created the Mat with Roller & Ring program, Mat with Rotator Discs, Reebok Core Pilates, BOSU Pilates, and Kinesis Mind Body for Techno Gym. Elizabeth choreographs and performs with Pilates Performance.
Marisha Olivarez
AFAA Certified Personal Trainer
Marisha has been a personal trainer and aerobic and dance instructor through AFAA since 2003. She competed and placed in the top 10 in Contra Costa Bodybuilding Championships in 2009. Marisha’s passion is to provide you with the tools of living and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, inspiring and motivating you to be the best that you can be. Consistency and determination is the key to achieve your desired goals. Marisha specializes in weight loss, body building, reconditioning athletes, and safe and effective strength training.
Heather Ophir
AFAA Primary Group Exercise Certification
Heather has spent her whole life teaching or learning in a classroom. After 15 years as a high school English teacher she was ready to reinvent herself, and embarked on a journey of physical wellness which included learning to swim, bike and run in preparation for triathlon competition, participating in the life changing UltraSimple Diet program, and embracing all that Group Exercise at Rolling Hills Club has to offer. Zumba fitness classes quickly became the favorite, and after spending a year and a half positioned at the front of the room, it was a natural next step to pursue certification to teach the high energy, incredibly fun Latin rhythm-inspired cardio class!
Susie Powell
Introduction to come.
Phyllis Schultz
Introduction to come.
Jillian Shay
DIRECTOR OF FITNESS | ACE (American Council on Exercise) Certified Group Exercise Instructor (1989), Zumba, Zumba Gold and Zumba Toning Certified Instructor
Jillian’s first love for exercise came through group exercise classes back in the 1980’s – Remember Jane Fonda and leg warmers? Jillian attended classes at Sante West in the Marina District of San Francisco. There she met Joanie Greggains who mentored her and encouraged her to follow her dream of helping others to find the joy of exercise. She became an ACE certified instructor in 1988 and was hired by Rolling Hills Club the day after she moved to Novato in 1989. Since then, Jillian has taught many popular classes. She started the first of it’s kind muscle class for women, Muscle Madness, which is still on the schedule today. Currently, Jillian is teaching the wildly popular Zumba® and Zumba Toning® classes. She also teaches Fitness Interval Training (FIT), which she designed to increase muscle strength and endurance while creating maximum calorie expenditure. Jillian has an incredible passion for group exercise classes which shows in her enthusiasm and joy of teaching. She always welcomes newcomers.
Amy Stubblefield
Amy has been in the fitness industry for over thirty years, and still feels as passionate as ever about being able to help people lead healthy, energetic lives. She began as a group exercise instructor and enjoyed the excitement of leading a group. She also enjoys working with people one on one. Amy’s specialties are cardio interval training, circuit training, endurance training, sport specific training, Pilates, and core training.
Gretchen Turzo
Integrated Teacher Training (ITT) Certified Pilates Instructor – Professional Level
Gretchen Turzo is an ITT certified Pilates instructor who trained with some of the leading Pilates professionals in the Bay Area including Madeline Black, Jean Sullivan, Debra Schubert, Jorg Chabowski and Leah Putnam. At a young age, Gretchen was a competitive gymnast later moving on to dance, yoga, and competitive sports. She has found her calling as a Flying Trapeze artist and Pilates and Gyrotonic instructor in the Bay Area. Gretchen truly enjoys working with others as they learn mind-body awareness and use it to further their health and life endeavors. Since becoming a Mama, Gretchen has added a specialty in working with Pregnant and PostPartum Mamas to strengthen and heal our Mama bellies and bodies.
Tim West
Introduction to come.
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