Meet the team

Confident woman in a gray blazer smiling with folded arms against a white background.

Raquel, Co-founder and Chairwoman

Raquel Durden is a retired U.S. Army combat veteran, author, and holistic wellness leader dedicated to helping others cultivate calm, restore balance, and build resilience through mindful living.

Raquel began her yoga practice in 2007 and is an E-RYT 500 & YACEP (Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider). She completed her foundational yoga training in Athens, Georgia, advanced study at the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and holds Warriors at Ease Level 2 Trauma-Sensitive Yoga certification. She also holds certification in sound bath facilitation and holistic nutrition.

She enjoys exploring wellness and helping others build connection and resilience, particularly among veterans and first responders. Through intentional movement, breath-based exercises, and accessible mindfulness practices, Raquel teaches participants how to intentionally weave wellness into everyday life.

Raquel is the author of Dial Down: Holistic Strategies to Move from Chaos to Calm, a research-informed and story-driven guide offering practical tools for managing stress and enhancing well-being.

Beyond the mat, she is a nonprofit founder, speaker, wife, mother, dog lover, advanced-stage cancer thriver, and lifelong learner who believes small intentional practices can transform how we live.

Mary Beth, Vice Chair

Mary Beth is our Vice Chair on the Board of Directors and a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve. She is passionate about building resilience in the military and veteran community through connection and wellness. Mary Beth is a RYT 200-hour yoga teacher with specific training pertaining to military trauma. She is also a Master Resilience Trainer (MRT) and SCUBA instructor. Bottom line she is obsessed with the breath and how it can bring us peace.

Dé, Director of Outreach

Dé is a veteran, mother, grandmother, Xicana Scholar, and community organizer whose work lives at the intersection of healing, leadership, and collective liberation. After more than two decades of service in the United States Air Force, her work is now shaped by lived experience, global fieldwork, and a deep commitment to building the kinds of spaces where women can connect, thrive, and return to their own bodies and wisdom.

Her path has been informed by military life, motherhood, addiction recovery, healing from military sexual trauma, and years of studying what helps women return to themselves. That lived experience now guides both her community work and doctoral research, where she explores recovery, spirituality, embodied healing, and ancestral ways of knowing through scholarship, storytelling, and research around the world.

Dé is the co-founder (alongside her daughter Elaine) of The Mothership, a grassroots initiative rooted in intergenerational healing, storytelling, movement, and joy. She currently serves as Director of Outreach for Humble Warrior, where she cultivates programming, partnerships, and pathways for women veterans to reconnect with themselves and one another. She has also presented this work in academic and public spaces, including conferences such as International Association of Maternal Action and Scholarship (IAMAS), where her work continues to bridge scholarship, story, and lived practice.

You can usually find her somewhere between a research question, a passport stamp, or blowing dandelions with her grandbaby at the pond.

Jonnie, Secretary

Jonnie began her career with Cobb County 911 in 1998, where she served for nearly three years as a 911 operator/dispatcher. In 2001, she joined the Marietta Police Department where she has continued to serve for 25+ years.

After experiencing her own stressors of the job, Jonnie created her department’s first peer support team in 2015. Jonnie obtained her Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology with an emphasis on stress, trauma, and officer wellness. For the past two years, Jonnie has served as the first full-time Wellness Officer at her agency and is the first to hold such a position in the State of Georgia.

Additionally, Jonnie founded the Metro Atlanta Public Safety Peer Support Collaborative in 2025, and she serves as a speaker/ambassador for Project Overwatch’s Women’s LIFE Retreats.

When she’s not working or advocating for the wellness of first responders, she enjoys spending time immersed in nature, hanging out with her dogs, and playing tennis.

Sophia, Communications Coordinator

Sophia is our Communications Coordinator. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master's degree from City, University of London. Sophia works in book publishing and previously worked in public relations. As a former ballet dancer, yoga comes naturally to Sophia and she enjoys taking classes regularly. In her free time, she loves to read, cross stitch, spend time with friends, and dance to ABBA music.

Woman outdoors smiling with hands in a prayer position.

Cheri, Yoga Instructor

Cheri is one of our in-house Yoga Instructors. Cheri was a born yogi. At least that is what she and her family think. Before she even took an official class she was rolling around on the floor and stretching her body in all sorts of ways. She has always been concerned for others' well being, people, animals, and the environment. In 2022 she completed her 200-hour YTT (yoga teacher training). She is passionate about introducing all people to yoga to include poses, philosophy, breath, and meditation practices. Cheri believes that practicing yoga can change the world for the better. She enjoys spending time with her family, friends, her dogs, being outdoors, cooking, reading, and watching movies. Now that she is about to be an empty nester, she will add travel to that list!