The word “Yaga” comes from the folklore icon, Baba Yaga. She helped people free themselves from what they feared and what could not be seen so that it no longer ruled their lives.
Structure of the Inner Yaga Foundation
The Inner Yaga Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that began in 2001. We have a Governing Council, and a Board of Directors elected by the Council. The Board collaborates with the Council and assures the financial stability of the organization. The Board also collaborates with Yaga Circles and administrative staff. There are many opportunities for Yaga sisters in our organization as volunteers and leaders.
Board and Council
2025 Board of Directors
President, Claudine DeLorey
President Emeritus, Barb Stevens-Newcomb
Secretary, Sonia Vargas
Treasurer, Becky Fasth
Member, Amanda Newton
Governing Council
Teresa Atwill
Becky Fasth
Teddy Gardner
Barb Stevens-Newcomb
Annie Vrijmoet
Debbie Zygmuntowicz
The founder of the Inner Yaga Foundation is Barb Stevens-Newcomb.
Teacher, artist, storyteller, and social creative, Barb has a long history of organizing collaborative adventures.
As a young adult in the late 1970s, she was exposed to significant personal growth workshops her parents led. For Barb, the personal growth workshops missed something. She wanted events where participants were seen and heard, and where they felt a part of a community where they belonged. She wanted events that explored the divine feminine, that were creative, filled with love and healing. Barb wanted to create community.
Many years later in 2001, as a high school teacher and university instructor, and a parent to two teenagers, Barb had a powerful spiritual vision that lasted four months. A training for women came from this spiritual vision. It was the gift of the Purple Fire, something Barb could see each evening when her family was asleep, that informed her writing. For four months she slept little, had tremendous energy and heightened senses, as she listened to a stream of information that helped her write. A book titled, The Scent of Oranges, Spirit Underpinnings of the Yaga, by Barb Stevens-Newcomb, published by the Inner Yaga Foundation, explores the vision.
The Inner Yaga Training has grown since 2002 when the first training was held. It is a great adventure many women have been willing to take, many of whom are still active today in the Inner Yaga.