About Prism Moves

Asher grew up in Philadelphia and after a few years in North Carolina and Chicago, she made her way to Portland in 2008. After working in medical device and technology sales, she created a more dynamic career for herself that would fulfill her passion for health and personal connections. In 2012, she became a fitness coach.

She holds a Masters in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine. After coaching in several gyms in Portland, Asher saw a pattern of gaps in service to certain communities, and Prism Moves was born as a result to focus on and fill those gaps.

Will and Bear Strong Fitness is about helping others find their inner strength. As a coach Will wants to empower clients and help them find the strength they have inside them. Will wants to help his clients be confident, proud of who they are, to love themselves and not let others discourage them from finding themselves. ⁣Will is an elite powerlifter and coaches the Lift and Move and Powerlifting classes at Prism.

Rachel is a powerlifting and strength training coach at Prism. Five years ago, they fell in love with a barbell and haven’t looked back. They compete at the national level and are currently training for their first pro meet. Rachel is passionate about expanding queer inclusion and representation in powerlifting and is involved in advocacy efforts around the Pacific Northwest. They have two small dogs named Roy and Bandido who often tag along at the gym! Rachel is known for her technical expertise in strength training and competitive powerlifting, as well as her light-hearted humor and unconditional support for her clients. They train clients of all experience levels, from first-timers to elite lifters. If you think you and Rachel would be good fit, fill out their client interest form. 

Lavonte Barnett (known as Coach Tae) is a holistic fitness lifestyle coach specializing in athletic, group, and personal training. Coach Tae’s background in athletics started with soccer, volleyball, basketball, and baseball extending through college as a Division 1 football player at Oregon State University as a Beaver in the PAC 12 Conference. It was his upbringing in tandem with his exposure and access to elite trainers and equipment that ignited Coach Tae’s interest in human physiology, body mechanics, and functional training and his desire to share this empowering knowledge with those without the same resources. At the heart of TAE.logic Fitness’s ethos is the belief that all people have a right to accessible holistic fitness resources, and as such Coach Tae pushes the company to continually innovate on their mission to see true access to sustainable health & wellness resources become a basic human right to a healthy and exuberant life.

Ruthie coaches Olympic Weightlifting, Lift & Move and the Prism BIPOC classes. She was born in Kenya and immigrated to the US when she was 1.5 years old. She started playing sports when she was in 1st grade and has been an athlete ever since. Growing up, her primary ways of movement were basketball and soccer, and she started weightlifting when she started throwing Shot-put and Disc in high school. She went to her first CrossFit gym in 2016, learned to Olympic Lift and the rest is history! As a coach, Ruthie is passionate about getting BIPOC folks and others who have traditionally been left out of the body movement narrative to build trust in their bodies and help them explore how body movement and weight training can be accessible and beneficial. She correctly believes this can be done while having a great time and answering her creative check in questions! Her all time favorite- if you could dispense liquid from 5 fingers what would it be?! Ruthie’s – wine, ice coffee, hot coffee, peach bubbly water and plain water. 

Vanessa has been in the fitness industry for the past 20yrs. From an aerobics/pilates instructor to weightlifting coach. She started CrossFit in 2009 and started coaching in 2010. Vanessa has competed for several years in local CrossFit competitions, Strong Man/Power Lifting and finally settled with Olympic Weightlifting, and currently competes in the USAW Masters National level. She absolutely love coaching weightlifting and gymnastics! Throughout these years she’s never stopped learning, researching, and pushing herself to grow both as a coach and an athlete. Her coaching philosophy is that movement can be JOYFUL, through a trauma-informed lens – it can be healing, movement doesn’t have to look or feel any particular way to make “sense”. Strength, stability, flexibility, balance, power, mobility, endurance- It supports our brains, mental health, cardiovascular system. Movement helps us show up in our lives in the way we want to; hiking with friends, learning new sports, lifting kids. I’ve helped amazing humans strengthen their bodies for the marathon of pregnancy, the trauma and healing from surgery, and for feeling stronger in their everyday routines. In her spare time, she runs around with three crazy dogs, binges on Netflix and eats all the cookies!!

Credentials: L2, USAW 2, Power Monkey Alumni/Weightlifting staff, Brand X Kids, Carl Paoli Gymnastics, Human movement specialist. 

CF certifications in: Gymnastics, Kettlebell, Weightlifting, Mobility, Football, Aerobic capacity, Adaptive Training. ACLS/CPR.