Brianne Murphy, who grew up in Coatesville, is the Director of Justice & Reentry Services at the Transformation Yoga Project, a Kennett Square-based nonprofit that serves people impacted by trauma, addiction, and incarceration through trauma-sensitive, mindfulness-based yoga.

Although Murphy earned a bachelor’s degree in both Visual Anthropology and Religion from Temple University, she says that much of her deepest learning has come from community engagement.

“I’ve been privileged to work with and alongside creative and revolutionary thinkers,” said Murphy, who began working as a teenager on a horse farm.

The nature of Murphy’s work with the Transformation Yoga Project is what she’s most proud of as a professional.

“Over the past several years, I’ve been fortunate enough to have people, who are facing immense environmental and systemic challenges, continually show up and let me in to the best parts of themselves,” she said. “I believe that it’s these moments of radical connection in oppressive spaces that allow us to see the full possibility of our humanity.”

Murphy’s favorite Chester County restaurant is La Peña in Kennett Square.

“It has the best Mexican food of all time,” she said.