Meet Our Group X Instructors

Emily Allendorf

Dance

Emily is a CMU PhD student studying quantitative methods for decarbonization technology adoption in the department of Engineering and Public Policy. She has been dancing since age five when she first started her training in classical ballet in Northern California. For the next 14 years, she studied pas de deux, contemporary and modern dance, jazz, and character dance at her home studio, Ballet Petit, as well as several summer intensives with American Ballet Theatre, Kansas City Ballet, and the Oakland Ballet Company. As an undergraduate at UCLA, she expanded to theatre as a member of the student-lead HOOLIGAN Theatre Company, performing in shows like Cabaret, FAME, Sister Act, and Guys & Dolls. She is delighted to live in Pittsburgh and be a part of the CMU community. When she's not doing research, she is a member of the Tartan Salsa Club and a frequent student of her fellow GroupX dance instructors!

Becky Bruce 

Yoga

Yoga has been part of Becky’s life for 25+ years. She took her first Iyengar class at age 16 and has continually found yoga throughout the various stages of her life. In addition to the physical benefits, Becky appreciates that yoga repeatedly reminds her to live in the moment. In 2023 she took the leap and completed her 200 hour teacher training through Yoga Medicine®. She also completed the Mindful, Trauma Informed Yoga certification through Yoga Medicine® in 2024. Becky weaves pranayama breathwork throughout her vinyasa classes. You’ll leave her class feeling renewed and refreshed.

Laura Buermann

Sound Bath & Yoga

Laura began practicing yoga in 2013 while studying exercise science at the University of Pittsburgh. What started as a complement to her academic path quickly became something deeper, and she’s been practicing ever since. In 2022, she completed her teacher training at One Point One Yoga in Pittsburgh, later returning to Pitt for her master’s in clinical exercise physiology—where she ended up teaching the same undergrad yoga class where it all began. While her classes focus on the physical side of the practice, Laura enjoys weaving in breathwork and mindfulness, and continues to learn about the many ways yoga can support a lifelong path of growth and self-awareness. She was also trained in sound healing through a collaboration between CMU and Pitt and currently plays the sound bowls during the Scottie Sound Bath.

Karen Edwards

Abs & Glutes, Boot Camp, Full-Body, Kickboxing and Strength

I’ve been taking Group X classes at CMU since 1999 and I obtained Kickboxing and Group Exercise certifications in 2008, which is when I began teaching.  My day job is working as Assistant District Attorney for Allegheny County, but fitness is one of my great passions.  In addition to teaching Group X, where I get to meet some of the most amazing people, I also love to bike ride, hike, read and chill out on the couch while watching some great TV with my husband Matt and our sweet beagle Auggie.

Grace Farney

Scottie Sound Bath

Dianna Franco

Hip Hop & Jazz

Diana is a second year doctoral student in the Robotics Institute here at CMU. She developed a love for dance in high school after taking an introductory dance class for her art elective and has since continued to train in a variety of styles, ranging from tap to jazz to hip hop. She has performed in several dance showcases during her undergraduate career at Caltech and has even performed in the cast of an original musical “From the Earth to the Moon” during her time in Pasadena. Outside of the studio, she enjoys exploring the social dance community in Pittsburgh, training competitively as a West Coast Swing dancer and practicing Zouk in her free time.

Denise Freund

Express Flex, Pilates, Personal Fitness & Yogalates 

Denise Freund started taking dance at age four and started teaching dance when she was in middle school.  She taught (including competitive dance) and managed Sandra Lynn’s School of Dance Greensburg Studio as she put herself through school at Point Park University.  She performed and choreographed for many years, and even met her husband of 28 years when they worked together on one of the musicals. They trained together to become Pilates instructors and eventually moved back from NYC to Pennsylvania to open Innovative Exercise, a group fitness studio, where they taught Pilates, Yoga, Dance Fitness, and a myriad of other “innovative” exercise classes.  She continued to teach dance. She was privileged to be the Pilates instructor for Moon Area High School’s Swim and Dive Team. Denise and Britt started and thoroughly enjoy learning ballroom dancing. They have two wonderful CMU students. 

Maria Hilton

Scottie Sound Bath & Yoga

Maria began her yoga journey over a decade ago for self improvement and personal development to reduce stress, anxiety, and burnout from a challenging career in consulting and analytics. She brings this past experience into her classes by designing them to physically reset the body, mentally quiet the mind, and emotionally create a sense of calm. Making yoga relatable, practical, and straightforward is her goal. She enjoys explaining how to take what you learn on the mat and use it in everyday life to begin feeling better. Modifications and intensifications are provided during class to allow you to personalize your experience for what you need. Maria also became a Scottie Sound Bath facilitator in 2024 group fitness classes.

Rebekah Hughey

Scottie Sound Bath

Dr. Rebekah Hughey is a board-certified family medicine physician with advanced certification in integrative medicine, Reiki, and Ericksonian clinical hypnosis. She is also an MBA student at Tepper in the business analytics track. Driven by a passion for holistic wellness, she is dedicated to studying the therapeutic potential of sound and vibration to calm the mind, heal the body, energize the spirit, and bring joy.  Outside the healing space, she enjoys swimming, weightlifting, cycling, tennis, and anything that keeps her moving. She looks forward to guiding you on a rejuvenating journey through the restorative power of sound baths.

Tom Kolos

 Full Body Strength

Tom Kolos (he/him/his) (Duquesne University, Point Park University Conservatory of Performing Arts) holds the Certified Personal Trainer Certification through ISSA and a First-Degree Black Belt in American Freestyle Karate under Sensei George Mowod.

A veteran of over a decade in the boutique health space, Tom has helped clients to enhance their lives through enhancing their fitness and sees fitness as necessary to create a harmonious existent between mind and body.

As a member of Actor’s Equity, Tom adheres to the advice of Late President John F Kennedy who said ‘physical fitness is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.’

Tom specializes in training for aesthetics and incorporates higher-volume weight training with lighter weights to focus on tension under stretch and full Ranges of Motion, thereby inoculating against the potential for injury often correlated with High Intensity Training.

He seeks to make the gym a welcoming place for those new to fitness and experienced lifters alike.

Shira Krasnow

Hip-Hop & Jazz

Shira Krasnow has been teaching dance for 20 years. She has a BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Pittsburgh, a MA in Dance Education and Performing Arts from NYU, and a MFA in Screenwriting and Playwriting from Point Park University. Shira has taught dance classes at CMU, Point Park University and the University of Pittsburgh, among others. She has also taught dance classes in Canada and Germany. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Shira was an Adjunct Dance Instructor, Dance Captain, Assistant Choreographer, and played the role of “Yolanda” in the University of Pittsburgh’s production of “In the Heights”. In 2014, she moved to New York to study at NYU.  While there, she also took hip hop and dancehall classes at Peri Dance and Broadway Dance Center and created a hip-hop and dancehall curriculum for k-12 students.   She received her New York State teaching license in dance and taught dance for the New York City Department of Education for 7 years. Some of her dance and choreography credits include work for Wiz Khalifa, Fat Joe, Margot b, Miri ben Ari, the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball dance team, America’s Got Talent, America’s Best Dance Crew-On Demand, and a So You Think You Can Dance commercial. She has opened for various artists including Nas, Lupe Fiasco, Flo Rida, Young Jeezy, De La Soul and Vanilla Ice. Shira has recently relocated to Pittsburgh and is excited to be teaching at PBT. 

Tiffany Lu

Jazz & Hip-Hop

Tiffany is a CMU graduate student studying entertainment industry management at Heinz College. She has been dancing since the age of 3 when her parents put her in Kinderdance. She studied ballet, jazz, contemporary, and modern at Company Dance. She also learned Chinese classical dance and lion dance at Little Star Chinese Language School. As an undergraduate at University of Pennsylvania, she expanded into other Asian dances like Tinikling and Binasuan. She also got quite obsessed with southern lion dancing. She came to Pittsburgh to find her love in jazz and hip hop again, and she is excited to meet new people!

Pragna Mamidipaka

Yoga

Pragna is a PhD student in the ECE department at CMU. She has been practicing yoga since the age of 4! For the past 10 years, she has been attending Iyengar yoga classes in India, and is now a certified Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 yoga teacher, accredited by the government of India.

For Pragna, yoga is like sharpening the axe—keeping her mind and body sharp for whatever the day brings. She’s thrilled to join GroupX, where she can share her passion for yoga with others. Her classes are all about finding balance, having fun, and feeling great, and she can’t wait to help others experience the joy of yoga!

 Monique Mead

Scottie Sound BathMonique Mead has been a lifelong advocate for the healing power of music. Her career as aprofessional violinist spans three decades performing on major international stagesthroughout North America and Europe. This artistic excellence infuses her Sound Healingpractice, trainings, and research. 
As Teaching Professor and Director of Music Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Monique has created the first university course in sound healing and established student-run sound bath programs at major universities in the US and abroad. To facilitate training and research, she invented a soundscape notation system and app called SonicScore as well as a singing bowl app to provide easy access to sounds and protocols in her practitioner trainings.
In collaboration with behavioral health researchers at the University of Pittsburgh in 2024, Monique Mead tested her therapeutic sound protocol on 240+ participants to discover its effect on mood and stress. Results showed a 70% decrease in stress and an 80% increase in ability to relax and focus after one session. Additional research using EEG to map brain activity is currently underway. For her groundbreaking work in campus wellness, she was awarded a grant from the American College Health Association in 2024.
In 2021, Monique opened a sound healing studio at the Awareness & Wellness Center, a mental health practice in Pittsburgh, where she provides a variety of sound healing experiences as well as a certification program in the Mead Method.
Monique’s cutting-edge research on sound therapy, evidence-based training, large-scale sound bath concerts, and her passion for peace have captured local and international
attention. In 2025, Monique staged three Mega Surround Sound Baths with 30 musicians and sound practitioners encircling participants in historic Heinz Chapel in Pittsburgh. Her work has been featured on the front page of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette as well as on NPR, CBS, and the Sounds Heal podcast.
A lover of nature, yoga, and organic cuisine, Monique enjoys directing an annual music festival at Rancho La Puerta, a premiere wellness resort in Mexico, where she first discovered sound healing. She invites you to explore the timeless world of sound and the transformative power of deep listening.

Tammy Moran

Barre, Pilates & Zumba

Tammy has a B.A. in dance from Point Park University and a M.A.T. in Health and Physical Education from the University of Pittsburgh. She is certified for Personal Training through NASM, and group exercise through AFAA. She has taught for the YMCA, LA Fitness, and several smaller fitness facilities throughout the Pittsburgh area.  She is the former owner of Pittsburgh Dance Arts studio, which offered classes in all types of dance, fitness, and personal training. She would love to help you reach your personal goals for better fitness and overall health and wellness.

Katie Russell

Zumba

Katie is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music, where she studied Clarinet Performance and received her Certificate in Music Education. She is currently the Music Teacher at the ACLD Tillotson School, an Approved Private School for students with complex learning disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorders. Katie has been teaching Zumba at CMU since 2014, while she was still a graduate student in the School of Music. Katie’s Zumba career began one Thanksgiving break when she attended her first class at a health center with a friend and her mom, and she hasn’t stopped moving since!  In addition to teaching music at Tillotson and  Zumba at CMU, Katie is on the staff of the Baldwin High School Marching Band as the Woodwind Instructor, maintains her own private music studio teaching clarinet, flute, and saxophone lessons to students of all ages and abilities, and is a Teaching Artist for Lullaby Project Pittsburgh, where she gets to help mothers who have experienced birth trauma to compose lullabies to help process their experiences.  Katie also loves to perform, so if you can’t make her Zumba class, you can catch her on stage playing clarinet with the Pittsburgh Philharmonic, the West Hills Symphonic Band, the Beaver Valley Choral Society Orchestra, in the pit orchestra for various musical productions, or anywhere else she gets the opportunity!  When her schedule allows, Katie also likes to attend other types of fitness classes, including other dance classes and yoga.

Dee Schlotter

Indoor Cycling & Power Vinyasa Yoga

Dee has appreciated the benefits of exercise since she was a teenager. An avid runner, hiker, biker, yogi and fitness instructor, Dee brings 15 years of teaching experience to every level. She taught high intensity, interval training (HIIT), power sculpting classes before getting her certification in yoga from Amazing Yoga in Shadyside last year.  Dee received her 200 hour power vinyasa yoga and yin yoga teacher training from Amazing Yoga. She believes the body is meant to move and nature heals. In today's world, our schools and jobs require too much sitting inside. She hopes to meet you in one of her classes, and any chance we get, to do those classes outside!

Misha Stinson

Cycling & Yoga

Misha is a 200 Certified Yoga Teacher, Indoor Cycling Instructor, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Certified Instructor, and Organic Herb & Flower Farmer. 

She has been practicing indoor cycling since 2015, and yoga since 2018. With a masters degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education, she is passionate about the impact of health and wellness amongst college communities. 

Misha blends her knowledge of mindfulness and yoga, to provide a slower paced yoga practice, that focuses on connecting every breath with movement.

Sarah Tobia

Pilates

Sarah is a PhD student at CMU and Pitt studying Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology. Her fitness journey started as a ballet dancer and eventually expanded to group fitness. She understands the benefits group fitness can provide to students and university members because her own group fitness journey began as an undergraduate at UMass Amherst, where her positive experience as a participant in classes led her to obtain an instructor certification. She is currently teaching Pilates at CMU but has experience teaching a variety of group fitness formats, including strength, abs and glutes, stretch, and ballet. She has been certified as a Group Fitness Instructor by ACE since 2021 and has received additional certification as a Functional Training Specialist. Sarah is committed to providing a space for everyone to experience the benefits of exercise and movement. All of her classes are designed for all experience levels, with modifications provided and optional equipment. 

 Katie Vargo

Aqua Aerobics, Cycling, Personal Fitness & Yoga

Katie Vargo is a certified group fitness instructor and personal trainer, dedicated to helping people discover their strength and reach their wellness goals. As a Level 1 USMS swim coach and two-time Ironman finisher, Katie brings firsthand endurance expertise to every session, whether working one-on-one or leading dynamic group classes. She creates inclusive, motivating environments where everyone—from first-time gym-goers to seasoned athletes—feels empowered to reach new goals. Katie helps clients develop the consistency and confidence needed to find their inner spark and reach new goals. Outside the gym, you will find Katie lifeguarding at the pool, running, biking, or paddling our rivers. 

Kimi Wenzel

Pilates & Yoga

Kimi is a yoga/pilates instructor and a wellness facilitator currently based in Pittsburgh, PA. Beyond her work in wellness, she is also a PhD student at CMU HCII! Kimi studied yoga in Bali, Indonesia within the lineage of K. Pattabhi Jois and B.K.S. Iyengar. She is also trained and certified through Power Pilates based on the Joseph Pilates system. While classically trained, you can expect a blend of modern sequencing in all her classes. 

Christine Wingenfeld

Zumba

Christine Wingenfeld is a CMU Heinz College alumna with a Master of Arts Management and currently works for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust supporting local performing arts organizations with data analysis. She has been a certified Zumba instructor since 2012. Since Christine has a background in dance, she tries to give her classes a "dancier" feel and incorporates various styles from Broadway to Bollywood.

Jessi Znosko

Cardio Weight lifting, HIIT, Indoor Cycling, Pilates & Yoga

Jessi has been at Heinz College as an academic advisor for 2 years. Her academic background is in biotechnology (BS RIT, MS Chatham) and vaccines, but she made the jump to higher ed in 2014 when she lived in VA. Her mom had her own fitness side business, called "For Fitness Sake" so from the womb she was enjoying the benefits of fitness classes. She earned her group ex certification through AFAA in 2010 and her personal training certification through NASM in 2016. For over 15 years, she has been teaching a variety of cardio and strength classes. Her goal is to help people from all ages and backgrounds feel strong and healthy by making personal fitness approachable and fun! In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, hiking and anything outside with her husband, son and elder fur baby, Tucker.