Lisa Flynn, E-RYT 500, RCYT, founded Yoga 4 Classrooms in 2007 with a mission to empower youth with the skills they need to healthy, happy, resilient at school, at home and throughout their lives. Y4C provides professional development training and resources to school professionals, schools and related organizations that support the social, emotional, cognitive and physical well-being of children, youth and the adults who serve them. The program is used in over 60,000 classrooms worldwide.
With a degree in Communication, an entrepreneurial spirit and a deeply personal passion for supporting youth resilience and mental health and prevention, Lisa retired from a 10-year career in marketing and business management before founding ChildLight Yoga (now ChildLight Education Company) in 2005, and then launching its sub-brand, Yoga 4 Classrooms, a few years later. After growing both brands for 15 years, she passed the reins of ChildLight to new ownership in 2019 in order to focus on forwarding the mission of Y4C full-time.
Lisa is author of several titles including Yoga 4 Classrooms Activity Card Deck (2011); Yoga for Children: 200+ Yoga Poses, Breathing Exercises and Meditations for Healthier, Happier, More Resilient Children; and Yoga for Children–Yoga Cards: 50+ Yoga and Mindfulness Activities for Kids (2018). She also is a contributing author of Best Practices for Yoga in Schools (2015) and Stories of School Yoga: Narratives from the Field (2019). As well, she sponsors the Research Repository: Yoga, Meditation and Mindfulness for Children, Adolescents and in Schools, a continuously updated resource she developed for schools, program providers, researchers and others interested in the growing body of evidence supporting mindful practices in schools. Lisa also contributed to Effects of a classroom-based yoga intervention…, the first peer-reviewed and published research study to use both subjective and objective data to examine the acute and longitudinal effects of a school-based yoga program.
As national presenter, trainer and consultant, Lisa has supported educators, school leaders and districts in sustainably implementing yoga, mindfulness and SEL to support the unique needs of their school communities. Her work has been featured in media such as Fox News, Education Week, Forbes, Yoga Journal, Greater Good, and HuffPost Parents. She has been honored with several business awards including “Influential Businesswoman of the Year” and “Small Business of the Year” for innovative contributions to the local and national community. Closer to home, she has served for many years as a University of New Hampshire PD&T faculty member.
In the Summer 2023, Lisa passed on the ownership of Yoga 4 Classrooms to Dr. Sarah Kirk. Although she has since started a new career, she enjoys a part-time role with the company as Consultant & Trainer. In addition, she continues to serve her community as School Board Director of the Southern Maine school district in which she and her family reside.