Dr. Shekhar Annambhotla, BAMS, M.D. received his BAMS degree from Acharya Nagarjuna University in Andhra Pradesh, India and his MD in Ayurveda (Internal Medicine) at Gujarat Ayurved University in Gujarat, India.Dr. Annambhotla is also a Registered Yoga Teacher (R.Y.T.-500) credentialed by the Yoga Alliance (USA) and an instructor of therapeutic Hatha Yoga, having completed training at the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Center in India. He is a former faculty member of NKJ Ayurvedic Medical College in Karnataka, India and served as an Ayurvedic medical consultant to the Maharishi Spiritual Organization for over 7 years, traveling extensively throughout Europe, Latin America and North America to develop and teach, deliver lectures and offer consultations for health professionals and for the general public.

Dr. Annambhotla currently serves as a consultant Ayurvedic Practitioner, faculty member and in-resident Panchakarma therapist at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, MA. He is also a faculty member of The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin’s (AAPI) Integrated Medicine Educational Program: Integrating Ayurveda into Clinical Practice.

Dr. Aparna Bapat, BAMS is the Ayurveda Program Director and Principal Instructor at Starseed's New Jersey Institute of Ayurveda, and instructs the Foundation-Level Certification course, Ayurvedic nutrition and food theory, physical diagnosis and assessment, materia medica, pathology and other applied and clinical disciplines. She is an experienced Ayurvedic physician who graduated from the renowned Pune University Faculty of Ayurvedic Medicine & Surgery in India with her BAMS. During her years of practice, she has worked in Bombay and Pune gathering expertise in Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis, phytotherapy and pancha-karma therapy, and has traveled, pacticed and taught in many European countries including Belgium, Holland, Austria, England and Germany giving lectures, workshops and consultations on Ayurveda and its practical values.

Dr. Bapat was a senior lecturer at the College of Ayurveda in London and is now a visiting lecturer at Ayurvedic facilities in London and Belgium. She has treated thousands of patients suffering from digestive, liver and pancreatic problems, cardiovascular disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, AIDS, and many other chronic physical debilities and psychosomatic diseases. She is a writer/contributor to the health columns of India Weekly and numerous professional medical publications in Europe and the United States, and has been on television and radio health programs as an Ayurveda authority in the United Kingdom.

Jyoti Chrystal, ERYT is the founder and co-director of the Starseed Center for Yoga & Wellness. A Registered Yoga Teacher as well as a Yoga Therapist, Ms. Chrystal has 30 years of international teaching experience in yoga, meditation, homeopathy and other diverse healing arts. Her early yoga career has included study with B.K.S. Iyengar in India in the 1980's and Ashtanga with Alan Bates and other notables of that era.

She continues to study with senior Iyengar teachers such as Aadil Paklavalaha, Gabrielle Guibilari, and Lois Steinberg. She has also studied Vini Yoga and is certified in Cardiac Yoga by the Iyengar Yoga Institute. She is currently a student of Mukunda Styles in the context of his Structural Therapy Program and has founded and is mentoring two successful yoga therapy classes here at Starseed. She is also director of the Center's yoga teacher training program.

Dr. Jason Martin, Ph.D. is the Institute's Academic Director. He was educated at Yale University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester and has a background in higher education. He is co-director of the Starseed Center for Yoga & Wellness.

Dr. Martin has a private practice as a gestalt empowerment therapist specializing in Heart Centered Gestalt Therapy and is a meditation teacher. He studied Insight Meditation with Sri Gowenka in India and continues to study amazonian shamanism in Peru with Don Agustin Rivas-Vasquez. He is the author of Starseed’s signature Level One Yoga/Meditation Class and director of Starseed’s meditation training programs. He is the author of numerous publications.

William Courson, MSNHS (Adv.Herb.Med), C.Ayur. is Administrative Director of the New Jersey Institute of Ayurveda. Bill is a retired corporate managerial accountant and website designer and developer, and has been a lifelong student and teacher of and writer on the themes of traditional healing, alternative medicine, spirituality and eastern and western alchemy.

He is a certified herbalist with special interests in the fields of ayurvedic and traditional Western herbal medicine and energetic healing through 'subtle therapies' including chakra, color and crystal therapies. Additionally, Bill is a Reiki Master/Teacher in the traditional Usui lineage. Bill is the author of numerous professional publications, and he makes his home in Montclair, New Jersey where he is active in a number of civic, professional and charitable organizations. He is an active member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association.