Tracey Mortensen
Executive Director
Tracey holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics. She is the owner of Inspiring Actions Yoga & Wellness Center, which she founded in Hudson, WI, in 2008. In 2019, Inspiring Actions added a second location in River Falls, WI.
In her own words: What brought you to yoga, Tracey?
“In my life before Inspiring Actions, I worked as a mortgage broker and, to be honest, I was miserable. I was looking to find any sort of release from the stress and anxiety of my job, and that’s when I found yoga. What happened through my journey with yoga was, in every sense of the word, life-changing.”
Lucy Pirner
President
Lucy has a master’s degree in counseling and extensive continuing education in trauma, spirituality, mind-body medicine, and somatics. She was a founding board member of the Starry Night Collective, which provides grants and support services for the arts to programs serving students with disabilities.
In her own words: What brought you to yoga, Lucy?
“I entered the world of yoga and meditation in 1999 in search of a cure for my own depression and anxiety. Decades later, I now have firsthand experience in the profound healing effects of yoga.”
Sam Foster
Secretary
Sam is a RN with a master’s degree in transcultural and community health nursing with certifications in health, wellness, and functional nutrition coaching. She works at Hudson Hospital as an employee health nurse and at St. Catherine University as an adjunct professor in clinical nursing. Mostly recently, she opened her own health coaching business, Fostering Wellness, LLC.
In her own words: What brought you to yoga, Sam?
I began practicing yoga as a complement to distance running. The more I practiced, the more I learned about myself, my ego, and the way deep-seated pain would seep up through my tissues. By learning about yoga’s history and philosophies, I was able to utilize this remarkable science to overcome and work through past traumas. I was immediately interested in finding ways that yoga and nursing synergistically brought about healing, which influenced the development of my nurse-provided health and wellness coaching business.
Erin E.H. Austin
Board Member at Large
Erin is a high school teacher, writer, author of education books, and educational consultant. She has been actively involved in the non-profit world (with Big Brothers Big Sisters), including in leadership, since 2005.
In her own words: What brought you to yoga, Erin?
I started doing yoga through St. Paul Community Education with a friend of mine in 2004 or 2005. At that time, yoga wasn’t nearly as prevalent as it is now, and I got into it specifically because I was looking for something different, something no one I knew was doing. I ended up loving it, and found that it met so many of my health needs/goals in one fell swoop.
Cori HildebranDt
Board Member at Large
Erin Stamets
Board Member at Large
Erin’s background is in public health nursing. She did home visiting in underserved communities throughout the Twin Cities for many years, primarily working with women facing high risk pregnancies. Erin holds a master’s degree in women’s health and worked as a nurse practitioner in a St. Paul clinic before moving to River Falls.
“Yoga has been a consistent source of inner strength and calm throughout my adult life. Among the many gifts I have received from yoga practice is the power of breathwork, both on and off the mat. I find myself tapping into yoga breath throughout the day if I feel anxiety rising, or if I simply want to be more present in the moment. I completed a yoga teacher training program in 2019 in order to deepen my own understanding of yoga history, philosophy, and teachings. I hope to share the beauty of this practice with others for many years to come.”
Kelsey Kaufman
Board Member at Large
Kelsey is the co-owner and co-founder of Encompass Birth & Wellness, a pregnancy, birth, and early post-partum doula service. She is also the office manager for Inspiring Actions Yoga in River Falls and Hudson.
In her own words: What brought you to yoga, Kelsey?
My first yoga class was to fill a college P.E. credit. The instructor was nine months pregnant, and I was so impressed that she was able to continue to practice yoga. At this time, my husband and I were going through a 4-year fertility struggle, so I thought yoga might help. I googled yoga classes near me, and Tracey’s Yoga 101 came up. I signed up and loved it! I was the nerdy person getting there early and sitting in the front of the class taking notes. Besides increasing my strength and flexibility, yoga taught me how to breathe in a way that is beneficial to my body and overactive mind. My stress and anxiety levels lowered. I tried meditation for the first time. Two months after completing Yoga 101, I found myself pregnant, which led to our first full-term pregnancy and successful birth of our oldest daughter.
