About 

Roots Up Wellness is the intersection of Elena's long-time loves of fitness, wellness, agriculture, and nature. Her love of fitness was fostered early by a passion for competitive swimming, self-trained triathlon wins, and years of lifting and cross-country running. She began her fitness career early, teaching her first private swim lesson at 11 and starting a business that kept her occupied in the summers for just short of a decade. In 2024, she shifted her fitness focus and became certified as a personal trainer (NASM-CPT). Today, she works primarily with general population clients supporting functional fitness and everyday health. She added to her fitness and wellness certifications in 2026, spending a summer pursuing her 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher certification (RYT-200) in Bali, Indonesia. She currently teaches yoga on NC State University's campus.
When it comes to non-fitness wellness, Elena grew to understand the importance of mental health after facing her own struggles in early 2024. She has practiced meditation, journaling, gratitude, reflection, and other beneficial practices ever since.
Growing up with a nutritionist mother, Elena always understood that eating well impacted your wellness. But it was in high school, when she began working on a Scottish Highland cattle farm, that she first came to the realization that how that food was grown and raised played a part too, and thus, a passion for agriculture was born.
Elena pursued farm work both locally and by taking a gap year before university to volunteer on farms abroad. She learned about agriculture in different climates, cultures, and contexts by volunteering on an organic vegetable farm in Ireland, at a permaculture-based wellness center in Switzerland, on a vineyard in Greece, on a dairy farm in Australia, and on a rare-breeds animal farm in New Zealand. These experiences gave her a global perspective on not only agriculture, but on how wellness is seen and practiced around the world.
Always a fan of a good hike, Elena also understands the benefits that being in nature can bring for your wellness. Today, she's excited to bring fitness and wellness to farms and green spaces in the greater Raleigh area.