A Texas girl at heart, Joy Winkler loves the very “Texas” spirit that skirt celebrates – a similar spirit she incorporates into her every day yoga practice. A mechanical engineer turned yoga practicioner and teacher, Joy made a decision to never work again – and by that she means consciously.  Whether she is teaching her yoga classes, returning emails or handling mechanical issues at her yoga studio, she does it from the heart and has fun doing it!

The owner of Joy Yoga on Washington, Joy strives to share the empowering and healing effects yoga can have on your life.  “My passion is using yoga postures as tools for people to release worry and stress, and as tools to feel that we can choose to allow even challenging situations (or poses!) be joyful and liberating.”

With a career that is based around empowering women, that removes them from their comfort zones and improves their self-esteem by helping them create their own personal style, Alex Bramlett is honored to be an instructor and lead dancer at Sonia’s World of Dance (SWOD).  Afterall, he claims he is responsible for “presenting a woman’s personality to the world.”  And, that is a big job!

Throughout his life, Alex was inspired by several family members, including Mark Ballas, a 2-time champion and performer on Dancing with the Stars.  His grandmother, a flamenco dancer, owned a dance studio as he was growing up so he was constantly surrounded with the art of movement.  Alex is not necessarily trying be the next world champion, but more importantly, he strives to instill the same passion for dance in others that has ultimately changed his life. And Alex is doing just that…“In my business, I feel that I help students realize their potential and allow them to discover their talent, confidence and joy.”

Aside from his career as a dancer, Alex holds an International Business degree from Texas A & M University. In the future, he hopes to use his degree to help touch as many lives as possible in the dance industry.

~Laura La Rue

Gracie Cavnar has experienced quite a bit in her life that lead up to launching her own non-profit organization in 2005.  From walking catwalks as a model to designing buildings and homes in architecture school, this multi-purpose woman has done it all.  Afterall, she doesn’t quite understand the phrase, “I can’t.”

So you can imagine when creating stuff from scratch, she’s pretty resourceful.  Centered around her most loved passion and a chance to help the young community, this wonder woman started a public charity from scratch based on an idea and a personal vision about how to solve a problem.  Executing every step from the legal paperwork and structure to the fundraising and program design, Gracie started Recipe for Success, a 501 C3 non-profit dedicated to combating childhood obesity by changing the way children understand, appreciate and eat food in a fun and adventurous way.

When it comes to goals in life, Keara has really turned her lemons into lemonade. Throughout her younger years, it was instilled in her by her family that a good education was key to success.  A student at Harvard University, Keara is getting just that.  Pursuing a degree in Journalism, she came to skirt this summer looking to get her feet wet. To Keara, skirt is real and “relevant to life” and rather than resembling the magazines that infest the publication racks at grocery store checkout lines, skirt! has stories that inspire, uplift and encourage.

“I crave art,” proclaims esteemed Houston-based artist, John Palmer. “It is both my celebration and my therapy and healing.” A high-octane individual, this “man in a skirt” is constantly striving to get more from life and his spiritual journey. A fifth generation Texan and third generation Houstonian, John, a graduate of Alief’s Hastings High School, is raising his champagne glass to a joyful life!

Showing an innate business sense from childhood, John’s first entrepreneurial undertaking was selling soda to thirsty family members for a quarter from the closet  And, while other children played, he was cutting grass for his mother’s landscaping company  - making the lawn his first professional classroom. Although harboring some resentment towards the situation in his younger years, today, John explains, “My mother Ada Palmer is my business mentor… She gave me a rock solid work ethic, possibly the greatest gift I’ve ever received...”

While most people find it hard to resist digging into a delicious gourmet cuisine from a top-rated restaurant, Kiran Verma can’t resist creating these tempting meals. Her late nights spent flipping through food magazines, her current summer read, Wife of the Chef, a behind the scenes look at the restaurant biz and admiration of Julia Childs, all point to her obsession with anything and everything culinary.  Perhaps inspired by her fantasy of starting a mobile food truck and selling the street foods of India, Kiran has used this obsession to bring the flavor of her hometown, Delhi, India, right here to the Space City!