Urban Play Team

Founder, President

Miwa Natsuki, MA, began her career in the fitness industry in 2005 at UC Berkeley, when she was trained to become a Group Exercise instructor while pursuing her undergraduate degree. Since then, she has completed her graduate degree in Kinesiology, with a focus on education and behavior change, at Saint Mary’s College. Miwa now offers personal training, health coaching and various group fitness classes and workshops around the Bay Area. As a fitness and wellness educator and coach, Miwa’s goals are to help others achieve their health and fitness goals and to empower them with knowledge and skills necessary to be in charge of their health and fitness.

Creation of UrbanPlay is based on her research during her graduate studies, experience working with kids through various organizations and also her many years of experience working as personal trainer and health coach with the adult population. Furthermore, her passion to create UrbanPlay is fueled by her own transformation from being an overweight and sedentary kid.

Miwa is also the Assistant Director of Fitness at UC Berkeley’s Department of Recreational Sports, where she oversees various Fitness programs for students, staff and faculty. Recently, she opened Studio360, a personal training studio, with few of her friends where she offers health coaching and personal training. And she is also the co-founder of Urbankick, a kickboxing format that blends High Intensity Interval Training for a full body workout.

Founder, Vice President

Shane Barnard, JD, is NASM, ACE and AFAA certified and the co-founder of Urbanplay and founder of Urbankick.  Shane has over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry but it was her work as an attorney for children in foster care that brought her passion for fitness to the younger populations.  She witnessed a growing health crisis among our youth and wanted to help by bringing education and movement to this under-served population.  She currently teaches at Crunch, Fitness SF and UC Berkeley where she is a health coach. Shane is a CEC provider for ACE and AFFA and honored ambassador for lululemon and Larabar.

Andra’s passion for fitness began in high school where she competed in cross-country and track and continued to develop when she discovered how cross training could prevent injury and help her reach her running goals. She currently offers personal training and fitness classes throughout the Bay Area. As a fitness instructor she fosters a supportive and welcoming environment so that members leave each class feeling stronger, healthier and more confident. She believes exercise needs to be fun and exciting in order to engage others, especially youth. Simply, you have to love it do it. When she worked as a camp counselor in LA County, she witnessed sedentary children who were more interested in playing video games then running around and playing active games. Her goal is to make UrbanPlay the best part of a child’s day so that they continue to make their health and fitness a priority in their lives.

Randy Myers offers personal training and teaches indoor cycling and boot camps in the East Bay and in San Francisco. Randy believes that fitness professionals need to make exercising FUN and EDUCATIONAL for all ages. As the kid who sometimes was picked last in P.E. class, Randy realizes the importance of motivating and encouraging young people on a path to wellness and confidence. Randy loves to bike, run, exercise, take HIIT classes, and devour books and movies. He also review movies for the San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, and Contra Costa Times.

Jaime is a certified personal trainer and fitness instructor in Berkeley. He is currently preparing and applying to Physical Therapy School! Jaime sees UrbanPlay as an intricate puzzle in helping make our youth and communities healthier by making movement fun and raising awareness about health and wellness issues. Jaime enjoys watching movies, listening to music, dancing, camping, traveling, exercising, reading, learning, watching/playing sports.

Chelsea is a personal trainer and fitness instructor based in San Francisco Bay Area. Chelsea finds working with adolescents so rewarding because youth tend to look at life as a challenge in positive and creative ways! They seek to conquer heights, trudge through messes, and overcome obstacles just for the sake of exploration. Simply put, they let their imagination move them! Chelsea loves looking at the body like it is a science project, and looking at the world as if it is a playground. She loves to dance, surf, climb, swing. skip, yoga, shake, breathe…and so much more!

Anne McMillan is a fitness enthusiast with mutliple talents. She leads various group exercise classes and offers personal training. She also teaches Latin at Berkeley High School! Anne believes that the modern American lifestyle makes it too easy to neglect our body, and fall into thinking of exercise as punishment. Through working with kids, her goal is to open up a world that associates exercise with fun. Anne enjoys the simple things in life: nature, outdoor activities, bike rides, picnics, music (she plays accordion and flute), poetry and spending time with her parents.

Marissa has many years of experience instructing youth fitness and wellness classes for ages 2 through 18. She loves teaching kids about their bodies as well as their health and wellness. Marissa finds that watching kids apply what they learned and make progress is one of the most rewarding experience. When she was 14, Marissa had spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis, which limited her physical activity growing  up. In 2012, Marissa decided to  get active. Through movement, she fell in love with her own body and learned how to control and manage her pain. Marissa loves to take group fitness classes and yoga.