Jessalyn Akerman-Frank

About Jessalyn

PRONOUNS: SHE / HER

Jessalyn Akerman-Frank is a certified and trained Deaf Yoga teacher from Twin Cities, Minnesota. Jessalyn fell in love with Yoga young, as a severe asthmatic, the breathing techniques helped her and as a Deaf teenager and young adult, Yoga gave her a place to be. After overcoming years of barriers to get accessible training, she finally was able to become certified through Saint Paul Colleage Jessalyn teaches Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Yoga in American Sign Language to all audience ages youth to seniors. Jessalyn operates DeafNorth Yoga where she teaches different online classes, and self-care workshops. She has been teaching in the Twin Cities since 2001 with different yoga studios, travels to other countries with Passages Deaf Travel as their private deaf Yoga teacher and is a frequent guest at conferences, and workspace meetings.

Jessalyn graduated from Gallaudet University, the only Deaf University in the world with BA in Communications and minor in criminology, she got her Masters in Special Education with a focus in Deaf and Hard of Hearing. She has taught students of all ages, including Adult Basic Education, and continues to mentor and teach in her spare time. Jessalyn was the director of non profit deaf organizations that she was involved in for over ten years, and now works with the Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing as the Director of Civic and community engagement. She is the co-founder of Deaf Equity, a non profit volunteer organization and the founder of the Annual Deaf LGBTQ+ Awards Program, which is now called Minnesota Deaf Queers.  In her spare time she spends time with her wife, two boys, three dogs and volunteering in her community and focuses on her own Yoga practice and skills.  Jessalyn believes Yoga should be accessible to everyone and has made it her life mission to see to it.