Who We Are
Meet Maddi and Lexi: two sisters from Kansas City on a mission to empower your well-being.
Both sisters are passionate about community, wellness, and books. They grew up practicing yoga and several other wellness modalities, including personal nutrition, meditation, journaling, and reading. This continued into their adulthood.
In 2025, they asked themselves how they could share what they’ve learned and experienced with their community to better help others navigate their own wellness journeys.
Thus, Walli’s Wellness Studio was born: a local one-stop shop for balance and self-care.
Meet the Team
Maddi Heise
After graduating from the University of Arkansas with an English degree, Maddi spent several years as a Digital Content Specialist and, later, a Digital Content Project Manager. In spring of 2025, she wrote her very first novel and became a yoga teacher. Now, Maddi enjoys engaging with her community through sharing her passions, which include practicing yoga, writing, reading, learning, and meeting new people.
When she’s not at Walli’s, Maddi loves to travel, drink coffee, read with her cats, take Walli on walks, and spend time with friends and family.
Lexi Heise
Lexi graduated from Kansas State University with an Entrepreneurship degree. Upon graduation, she moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she gained valuable experience as a financial recruiter for big banks nationwide. While her time in Charlotte offered significant professional growth, the pull of family ultimately led her back to the Kansas City area.
Lexi wasn't just climbing the corporate ladder; she was also busy becoming a wellness whiz! She's a Certified Personal Trainer, Corrective Exercise Specialist, Certified Nutrition Coach, and Certified Yoga Teacher. Now, she's blending her sharp business acumen with her deep love for wellness to open a yoga studio, proving that passion truly is the best business plan.
Emma Werner
Yoga grounds me in the present and strengthens my ability to connect to my mind, my body, and my community. Yoga invites me to be curious and I love to share that curiosity with others.
Elisa Bulger
Elisa (she/they) began practicing in 2016 and completed her first teacher training in 2020 with Power Life Yoga. She then studied under Kelly Gough, her inspiration for teaching, when Kelly offered a 200-hour training in 2021. Elisa's primary training is in both powerful, flow-based practices and grounded deep-stretching classes; she loves to explore the difference between unhelpful pain and the healing that can occur when finding the edge in each individual’s practice. Her yoga classes encourage people to play, experiment, and find new ways of taking care of themselves through physical, relational, and emotional growth. She aspires to cultivate yoga spaces that are challenging, accessible, trauma-sensitive, and infused with humor.
When she's not in the studio, Elisa is often cooking elaborate meals, shopping and making friends at farmers markets, talking to her cats in various voices, giggling at her favorite YouTubers, or enjoying a slow potato day with anime and unlimited popcorn.
Emilia Porter
Emilia has spent over ten years guiding others in various forms of movement, and yoga has recently become an anchor in her life. She strives to create a welcoming, inclusive space where every body is welcome and everyone is encouraged to show up just as they are. Emilia’s classes are designed to uplift, empower, and support each individual, making yoga accessible and inviting for all.
Walter (Walli) Heise
Meet Walter: the sweetest boy, official mascot, and the true boss of the studio. His favorite yoga pose is, naturally, Puppy Pose, and he's mastered it with adorable precision. You'll find him at the studio most of the time, ready to greet everyone with a big smile (yes, it’s a smile!) and a wagging tail.
Our Mission & Promise to You
We saw a gap in our own lives that was a result of inconsistent and inauthentic self-care practices. After recognizing the issue, we started noticing how many others were negatively affected by it, too.
So, we closed one chapter to begin this one with you.
Our mission is to enrich the lives of those in our community through providing intentional self-care practices.
What is “self-care” to us? Self-care is an active effort to nurture one’s mind, body, and soul. Self-care fills a personal cup that is constantly drained by external factors. Self-care ignites passion, light, love, and beauty from the inside-out.
At Walli’s Wellness Studio, we promise to do everything we can to help guide you on your self-care journey. We promise to be intentional, kind teachers. We promise to create a safe, judgment-free space for you to become the version of yourself that you wish to be.
We’re all in this together, friends.
