Meet the Team
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Jill Jordan
SENIOR TEACHER
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Gray Jordan
TEACHER
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Patrick Phelan
TEACHER
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Chloe Jordan
SPIRITUAL GUIDE
Jill Jordan discovered her calling after reading Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi and stepping into her first Bikram class in 2003—initially just to satisfy a persistent friend. What began as a two‑week trial turned into a lifelong path: she felt the healing effects immediately, found a deep love for the practice, and even met her future husband at Bikram Yoga Decatur, Georgia.
Moved by Yogananda’s teachings and bolstered by a few years of practice, Jill felt called to teach. With encouragement and support from her then‑boyfriend (her teacher and now husband), she attended Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in fall 2005—an experience she calls one of the most rewarding and challenging of her life.
After graduating, Jill taught across the Bay Area—Walnut Creek, San Ramon, Orinda, and Oakland—for six years before relocating to Oahu’s North Shore. There she taught at Bikram Yoga North Shore and went on to teach and manage Bikram Hot Yoga Mililani. Returning to her native Georgia, she brought her experience to Bikram Yoga Marietta as lead teacher, mentoring and inspiring other teachers, and helping them internalize the Bikram Yoga dialogue.
Jill continued her professional development by returning to trainings in Los Angeles and, while mentoring a new teacher from Marietta, participated in Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Thailand in 2014.
Her teaching is rooted in the conviction that Hatha Yoga—the physical asanas—is the beginning of the yogic journey. Jill’s great passion is helping people take that first step toward self‑realization. In class you’ll often hear her reminder: “The ultimate goal of Yoga is self‑realization.”
Gray Jordan discovered Bikram Yoga in Tucson, Arizona, in 2000. After years of chronic pain from multiple traumatic injuries, his first class showed him he didn’t have to accept a life defined by pain. He quickly realized the practice could help him heal.
Early in his journey Gray rebuilt his strength and confidence after a broken back sustained in a car accident. He trained at Bikram’s Yoga College in 2003 and has been teaching ever since.
More recently, exposure to toxic mold left Gray weakened and temporarily paralyzed. Through specialized medical treatment and relentless determination, he returned to the mat and resumed his recovery and teaching.
Gray’s frequent reminder to “lock the knee” and his emphasis on precise form come from his own experience—he credits correct, consistent use of the Bikram sequence with much of his healing and resilience.
Patrick Phelan discovered Bikram Yoga in 2000 after a friend found it helped ease her depression. A former gymnast and dancer, he was drawn to the practice’s disciplined, rigorous workout and appreciated its sustainability — and the way it helps keep your head on straight. “Come for the sweat, stay for the meditation.”
Patrick has been part of the El Cerrito studio since it opened in 2004 and has taught classes since 2018. He blends tough love with a touch of whimsy to create sessions that are both challenging and welcoming. Outside the studio he works as a transportation planner and enjoys biking to class along the Ohlone Greenway.
Chloe Jordan is our studio puppy — not exactly the guru of the mat, but impossibly cute. She often joins us at the studio, so there’s a good chance you’ll meet her during your visit.
The El Cerrito Studio
Founded in 2004 by Mary Osborn, Bikram Yoga El Cerrito has been a steady presence in the East Bay hot yoga community for over two decades. Mary established the San Pablo Avenue studio as a dedicated home for the traditional 26-posture Bikram method, building a committed and enduring practitioner base.
The studio was later owned and operated by Algiin Ford, who continued its neighborhood presence and commitment to disciplined, therapeutic hot yoga.
Most recently, the studio has been stewarded by Mimi Ohara, whose leadership preserved the space as a woman-owned, community-rooted sanctuary during a period of economic and operational challenges.
Now, the studio is entering its next chapter under Jill and Gray Jordan. With deep respect for its history and the community that has sustained it, Jill and Gray are committed to honoring the integrity of the practice while thoughtfully guiding the studio forward.
For more than twenty years, this studio has remained dedicated to a simple mission: to provide focused, traditional hot yoga in a supportive and welcoming environment. That commitment continues.
Bikram Yoga is a beginner-friendly, intentionally structured 90-minute series that addresses the whole body and supports both mental and physical well‑being. Practiced in a room heated to 105°F with 40% humidity, the environment helps improve circulation, increase flexibility, and encourages lasting changes in the fascia. The sequence includes 26 postures and two breathing exercises designed to enhance flexibility, cardiovascular health, and detoxification, making it a comprehensive practice for lasting benefits.
What is Bikram Yoga?
Lineage
Bikram Yoga is founded on the time-tested teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda and his brother, Bishnu Ghosh, with whom Bikram Choudhury studied. Some of our yoga postures are more than 3,000 years old!
Our particular style of yoga was developed from the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, a spiritual leader who dedicated his life to spreading the teachings of Kriya Yoga as a practical and scientific path to Self-Realization. Hatha yoga postures were a part of this system. In the 1920’s he came to the US to make Kriya Yoga available to the West, and in time created the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). He is also the author of the seminal Autobiography of a Yogi.
“The spine is the highway to the Infinite. Your own body is the temple of God. It is within your own self that God must be realized.”
– PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA
Yogananda’s brother, Bishnu Ghosh then formed a therapeutic yoga school in Kolkata, India, offering a prescription of Hatha Yoga postures for an individual’s specific ailments. He also combined weightlifting and bodybuilding with hatha yoga practice to promote physical and mental wellness.
“Yoga maintains youth long. It keeps the body full of vitality, immune to diseases, even at old, old age. The Yogi never becomes old.”
– BISHNU CHARAN GHOSH
In the late 1960s, after studying with Bishnu Ghosh for years, Bikram Choudhury distilled this particularly powerful sequence from the broader teachings of yoga and his personal, practical exploration of the health of the human body and mind. With Bikram Yoga, his vision was to maximize the therapeutic benefits for beginners and beyond, to make this yoga accessible as a healing tool for people all over the world.
And we know from our own practice, it works! Even now, the journey of yoga and the lineage continues – one person, one yoga practice at a time. From Paramahansa, to Bishnu, to Bikram, to each teacher, and to every person practicing on their mat.
“I hereby dedicate my life’s work to the cherished memory of my beloved guru, Bishnu Charan Ghosh. May the eternal light of his spirit, made brighter by the love of his brother and guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, and those who have carried this sacred lineage through the halls of the ages, be reflected in the hearts of all the students and teachers of whom it has been my privilege and honor to serve.”
– BIKRAM CHOUDHURY
