Colleen Saidman and Rodney Yee

Colleen Saidman Yee

Colleen Saidman Yee is an internationally respected yoga teacher, who has been teaching since 1998 and practicing since 1984. Her formal studies began at The Jivamukti Yoga School, where she completed the year-long teacher training program. She received the title: “The First Lady of Yoga” by The New York Times and has reached celebrity status in the yoga world. She opened Yoga Shanti Sag Harbor in 1999, where she’s taught and trained thousands of students and teachers over the years. Colleen is considered a teacher’s teacher. With Donna Karan and Rodney Yee, Colleen created and runs UZIT, formerly known as Urban Zen Integrative Therapy, a program that focuses on self-care and caring for others and has received many prestigious awards. Her integrative health-care calling was intensified when she spent time in Calcutta working at Mother Theresa’s homes for the dying destitute.

Prior to becoming a yoga teacher, Colleen was a top fashion model for over 20 years, working around the globe and represented by Elite and Ford Models. Colleen has been featured in numerous yoga videos on many different platforms and is a strong voice for women. She has graced the cover of Yoga Journal four times and has a 12-week online course called Yoga for Inner Peace on the Yoga Journal website. Articles about her have appeared in The New York Times, New York magazine, Vanity Fair, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among many others. Colleen released her first book, Yoga for Life in 2015, and her podcast by the same name launched in the summer of 2020. Colleen and Rodney’s four children continue to be their most humbling teachers. She lives in Sag Harbor, NY.

Rodney Yee

began his Yoga inquiry in 1980. At that time, he was a ballet dancer for the Oakland Ballet Company and a physical therapy and philosophy major at UC Berkley. His yearning for a life that would utilize mind, body and spirit was satiated by practicing and teaching Yoga. Over the years, Rodney played an instrumental role in introducing and expanding the reach of Yoga across the United States. His appearance on Oprah in 1999 helped catapult Yoga into the mainstream. Other highlights in his long career as a premier Yoga teacher include the co-owning of Piedmont Yoga Studio, his vast output of videos with Gaiam, and his illuminating workshops around the world. Rodney’s illustrious teaching career has flourished globally, but has been centered at Yoga Shanti in Sag Harbor, which is owned by his wife, internationally respected yoga teacher Colleen Saidman Yee. For 20 years, Rodney and Colleen have blended their teaching styles, practices and their hearts and minds. In 2001, with Colleen and Donna Karan, he co-created UZIT, formerly known as Urban Zen Integrative Therapy, which encompasses four supportive modalities that deliver self-care and caring for others and help bring us into the present moment.

Looking back at his long and influential career, and seeing his grown children, makes Rodney wonder a bit wistfully…how long did I blink?