THE POISE PROJECT: alexander technique for the 21st century
THE POISE PROJECT Board of Directors
MONIKA GROSS (Executive Director) is a senior teacher of the Alexander technique and has taught postural integrity and performance skills for over thirty-five years. She had her first Alexander lesson in 1976, and was certified in 1985, training with Lydia Yohay (ACAT). Monika taught in New York City for 25 years and in Asheville NC since 2010. From 2011-12, she was on the faculty of the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University.
In 2009, Monika, Belinda Mello, and Lindsay Newitter co-founded Studio AT Large, a grassroots effort to promote awareness of AT to a broader population by organizing AT teachers and their students to provide information and free AT "tastings" in a variety of informal indoor and outdoor locations in NYC. This was an early model for what is now THE POISE PROJECT.
Monika presented the model for THE POISE PROJECT in a workshop on 14 August 2015 at the 10th International Congress of the FM Alexander Technique at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Her strategic professional development model draws on six years of research that grew out of her interest in facilitating broader access to the educational principles of AT. Her particular area of interest is in preserving poise and teaching skills for lifelong personal growth for children and youth. She is a teaching member of the American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT) and Alexander Technique International (ATI), and a Registered Somatic Movement Educator (RSME) with the International Somatic Movement Education & Therapy Association (ISMETA), and shares exchanges and skills with colleagues in the Alexander Teachers of the Mountain Region (ATMR).
Monika is a member of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM); the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS); the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP); and The International Society of Posture & Gait Research (ISPGR). Since 2016, as Executive Director of The Poise Project, Monika has attended over 25 conferences, presented 17 research posters; led over 30 professional development post-graduate trainings; and carried out networking and advocacy for Alexander technique at countless symposiums and webinars, in person and virtually, around the world. This has easily reached over 100,000 people with The Poise Project’s message of Alexander Technique For All.
She is a professional theater director, playwright and performer and holds a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She is the Artistic Director of At-A-Site Theater, and is a member of Actors Equity Association (AEA), Stage Directors & Choreographers (SDC) and the Dramatists Guild. Monika was awarded the 2016 North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship for Playwriting. She has trained for many years in Butoh dance.
In November 2019, Monika was one of five recipients of the Caregiver Visionary Award at the National Caregiving Conference in Chicago for her work in developing and implementing “Partnering with Poise”, an AT-based course for family care partners to offer them skills for greater resilience and agency while managing the physical and emotional challenges of longterm caregiving.
After more than 20 years as a a well-respected health editor and writer for many national magazines, STEPHANIE YOUNG (Board Member) decided to pursue a second career as a doctor. She recently graduated from Ross University School of Medicine and is currently applying for a residency in primary care. She previously served on the board of directors for The Greater New York/Susan G. Komen Foundation as Medical and Scientific Affairs chair. Young had her first contact with learning Alexander technique principles in the late 1990s, and is interested in advocating for their longterm benefits to be better known and more accessible to the general public.
MARCIA MENTER (Board Member) is a professional writer and editor who has held senior editorial positions at Glamour, Mademoiselle, Redbook, and More magazines. She is also a poet whose work has appeared in literary magazines and in her own collection, The Longing Machine (HappenStance Press, 2007). Her book, The Office Sutras: Exercises for Your Soul at Work (Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003) offers readers opportunities for growth and peace even in the most stultifying work situations. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice from the Manhattan School of Music. Menter has been a longtime advocate for the benefits of Alexander technique, in particular for pain management, having used it personally as a successful tool for dealing with back pain. She and her husband live in New York City.