Why Lotus on Main
Lotus on Main was created from the belief that wellness isn't about perfection. It's about learning to care for the body you're living in today while building the strength, mobility and resilience to carry you forward.
Michelle Pearson
Head Instructor & Co-Founder
Michelle Pearson is a yoga teacher, wellness guide, and lifelong student of mindful living dedicated to helping others reconnect with their bodies, breath, and inner wisdom. With a compassionate, grounding teaching style, Michelle creates inclusive classes that welcome students of all experience levels—especially those seeking healing, balance, and renewed strength.
Her classes blend elements of Vinyasa, Yin, Slow Flow, meditation, breath work, and restorative practices, offering both physical support and emotional nourishment. Michelle believes yoga is not about perfection, but about presence—meeting yourself exactly where you are.
Inspired by her own journey through growth, transition, and self-discovery, Michelle is passionate about creating safe, supportive spaces where everyone can feel empowered, seen, and strong—both on and off the mat. Her teaching is rooted in mindfulness, kindness, and the belief that true wellness comes from honoring the whole self: mind, body, and spirit.
When she is not teaching, Michelle continues to study holistic wellness, energy work, nutrition awareness, and community healing practices. Her mission is simple: to help others move with intention, breathe with purpose, and live with greater clarity, confidence, and peace.
Ali Dietrich Violand
Founding Instructor
Ali Dietrich Violand is a yoga teacher, movement educator, and women’s wellness guide devoted to helping people reconnect to their bodies with compassion, strength, and honesty. Her teaching blends mindful movement, nervous system regulation, breath work, and functional strength to support both physical resilience and emotional well-being.
Ali’s approach is shaped by lived experience, years of study, and a deep respect for the intelligence of the body. She creates spaces where students feel safe to slow down, tune in, and build sustainable strength—without pressure, perfectionism, or performance. Her classes emphasize embodiment over aesthetics and encourage students to meet themselves exactly where they are.
With a special focus on women’s health, perimenopause, and life transitions, Ali believes yoga is not about fixing the body, but learning how to listen to it. Her classes are grounding, accessible, and thoughtfully challenging, offering tools students can carry far beyond the mat.
When she’s not teaching, Ali is writing, creating educational content for women, and continuing her own lifelong practice of learning, healing, and self-trust.
Nicole Loher
Founding Instructor & Marketing Lead
Nicole Loher is a founding instructor, yoga teacher, and meditation guide devoted to creating spaces rooted in care, self-trust, and emotional safety. As founding instructor, she helped shape the curriculum and teaching philosophy—grounding it in a return to yoga’s roots as a practice of self-inquiry, healing, and embodied awareness rather than performance or aesthetics.
Her teaching blends yin, power, trauma-informed approaches, breath work, and nervous system regulation, offering a balance of softness and strength. Nicole is known for holding deeply supportive containers where students can slow down, listen inward, and build a more honest relationship with themselves on and off the mat. Her classes emphasize clarity, self-awareness, and an appreciation for the body as it is—meeting students exactly where they are, without pressure to “fix” or transcend themselves.
She is a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher and Strength Coach, and brings a multidisciplinary perspective to her work. Beyond the mat, Nicole is a poet, a professor at New York University, and the Head of Communications for nonprofit organizations. She also finds grounding in farming and working on her family's farm.
Terry Smack
Co-Founder & Master Yogi
Terry Smack is the Co-Founder of Lotus on Main. She is the former owner of Terry’s Tag and Title Service, where she served as a licensed tag and title agent for the State of Maryland for 20 years. Terry is also the co-owner of 10710, LLC and 1010 Balt. Blvd., LLC, both real estate investment companies. She is the Founder and past President of the Maryland Vehicle Titling Association.
In addition, she is a former board member of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and the Carroll Hospital Foundation Board. She is currently serving as a Director of Farmers & Merchants Bank, where she is in her seventh year of board service.
Gail Slater
Community Engagement
Gail Slater is the former Vice President of Development & Communication at Target Community, an agency serving adults with disabilities. In that role, she was active in the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and on the board of Association of Fundraising Professionals, Western Maryland Chapter. She just completed a term as President of the Board of the Carroll County Arts Council, and now is on the board of Moonlit Acres Retreat Farm.
Gail has been practicing yoga for 20 years in various settings and considers it one of the great joys of her life!
Sam Yingling
Instructor
Sam Yingling is a yoga teacher, mindfulness and wellness guide, and Sylovetherpy (Forest bathing) practitioner. Her classes focus on creating a strong mind-body connection, and helping students learn to love and appreciate themselves, as they are, more fully. She also places a strong emphasis on gratitude, and human connection to the Earth and Natural World.
Her teaching style is friendly and approachable, and she strives to offer options to accommodate all levels of practitioners. Her classes typically include a blend of Hatha, Vinyasa, and Gentle postures, but that does not mean students won't be appropriately challenged and often surprise themselves with what they are capable of. Breathwork, meditation, and mindfulness will also come into play.
Sam is inspired to teach by her own personal journey over the past decade (plus) of self study, yoga practice, and health and wellness journey. As a busy modern human balancing all of the things (work, kids, entrepreneurship, homeownership, marriage, etc...) she aims to help her students find calm amid the chaos, in ways that fit in with their demanding lives. She believes that incorporating wellness practices is not about abandoning your life or making huge changes; it's about reconnecting in small but impactful ways.
In her free time, you will likely find Sam in her garden, reading a book on her deck, exploring the local parks or mountains, or at the baseball field watching her two boys play their hearts out.
