Deva became interested in yoga in the early 1970s. By the end of the decade, she had become a certified Kripalu Yoga teacher and was teaching evening classes while working as a graphic designer and raising her teenage daughter.

In the mid-1980s, Deva moved to Lenox, Massachusetts and joined the residential staff at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, the largest residential yoga center in the country, where she lived and worked for twelve years. While at Kripalu, she became a senior program director, curriculum developer and teacher-trainer. She was instrumental in the development of Kripalu Yoga and Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training, and trained over 2000 yoga teachers. She was also director of staff yoga education, and in 1994 was awarded the Kripalu International Network's Global Service Award

After moving to Saint Augustine, Florida in 1999, Deva brought the Spirit of Kripalu to the First Coast through classes, workshops and yoga teacher training programs at several locations on Vilano Beach, South Ponte Vedra Beach, and Saint Augustine before opening a small studio on King Street in the historic district. Her 200-hour Discovery Yoga Teacher Training program was the first in Florida to be registered with the national Yoga Alliance, and within a year she had outgrown the little studio and began looking for a facility to provide both studio space and housing for out-of-town students.

Deva found what she was looking for in an old boarding-house/warehouse near the historic district, and began renovations on what would become Discovery Yoga Center & Hostel for 17 years, closing our doors at the end of 2019.