Leah Rose Gallegos was born and raised in Highland Park, Northeast Los Angeles to her parents Luz Oropeza Gallegos, and Deborah Joy Glickman. She graduated from USC on a full soccer scholarship where she studied Chicana/o Studies. During her collegiate soccer career Leah was awarded all-american, broke records for most goals scored in a season and was invited to try out for the US Women’s National Team. At the beginning of her Junior year season however, Leah tore her ACL, cutting her soccer career shorter than expected and shifting her life’s journey. Her next projects were to be just as fruitful – while rehabilitating her knee injury, she found healing in yoga, and in music.
In 2012, Leah together with Lauren Quan-Madrid, founded People’s Yoga, the first and only yoga studio in East Los Angeles. People’s Yoga is a WOC-owned movement space offering personal and collective wellness tools to empower our people and communities to reclaim autonomy of their physical, emotional, and mental health.
In 2020, Leah along with her husband David co-created and launched Tia Leah’s Neighborhood, a fun and engaging multi-media performance that incorporates movement, music, participation and joy. Tia Leah’s Neighborhood celebrates diversity and community through storytelling, song, curiosity and language to help us think about how each individual impacts the world.
Leah is a movement practitioner, medicine keeper, singer and songwriter, mami of two, and advocate for wellness justice.
Find me on IG:
@leahrosegallegos
@peoplesyoga
@tialeahs
