Our Team
My name is Shannon Boughn. I’ve been working in the San Francisco area since 1998, bringing humor and inspiration to every workout since.
When we opened, we created an inclusive place where we know everyone's name, their struggles, and their goals. At 17 Reasons we continue to foster this community with fun, kindness, support, and accountability. We're not like most gyms.
Shannon Boughn
Studio Owner &
Lead Instructor
Shannon has curly hair and sometimes doesn't look in the mirror before she leaves the house. The effect can be startling, especially when she is barking out instructions on the bike.
Favorite Part of the Brain: Amygdala
Favorite Exercise: Squats
Angela Yang
Angela does a lot of Ironmans. We had to talk her down from trying to teach a six-hour cycle class. If she tries to get you to run after class, look at her earnestly, tell her you ran five miles from home, then walk slowly backwards out the door.
Favorite exercise: Running a marathon after 6+ hours of other grueling physical activity
Chase Ludwig
Ten years ago Chase convinced Meg to get a road bike and unleashed a menace we’re still dealing with today. He’s making amends by teaching classes here. Chase is a competitive crossfit athlete who loves to lift heavy things. He promised not to bench press any clients without consent.
Chelsea Ellsworth
Chelsea is tall and strong. She will harness the power of her tallness to make you strong, too.
Favorite Color: black until they come up with something darker
Favorite Person: Shannon
Favorite Exercise: not swimming
Felicia Cantu
Felicia is a therapist who works upstairs and saw a real potential for clients here at 17 Reasons (mostly among the staff). She came down to help – it was the first day of a new circuit – and is still here. Lot of work still to be done…
Loves: Challenges
Hates: Every minute of the AIDS/LifeCycle
Haley Bryant
At first we let Haley write her own bio but none of us understood it so we had to step in. Haley is a millennial who speaks gen z and is the gym’s best hope for a tiktok account.
Loves: The gym (so much that she changed her last name to Bryant)
Hates: Well her last name isn’t soulcycle….
Favorite person: Rosii
Jeremiah Rhodes
Jeremiah and Meg met in New Orleans where they shared a hotel room for three nights (make of that what you will, they say they were assigned “roommates” at a conference for queer journalists). Their bromance continued when he followed her to California. He is the first 17 Reasons instructor EVER to use the phrase “Balls to the wall!”
Note: Although he is in journalism school, Jeremiah’s bio has not been fact checked… at all.
Favorite exercise: Wall balls
Favorite person: Meg, obviously
Kathe Sweeney
Kathe is a professional editor who, as you can see, was not allowed to touch the website. She has known Shannon longer than any other instructor and has been collecting dirt on her for years. She is the only instructor here who is an extravert.
Favorite exercise: Rhythmic gymnastics
Loves: Long Island
Hates: Pennsylvania
Maggie Owens
Maggie used to take classes at the studio. One day she told us she was a teacher too, so we hired her for cycle. Later we found she teaches math but by then it was too late. On the plus side, unlike Shannon she never loses count of how many sprints are left.
Favorite exercise: Geometry
Meg Shutzer
A semi-professional recreational cyclist, Meg sometimes gets on her bike and rides over 200 miles in a day. Luckily our classes end after an hour or she would convince you to keep going.
Favorite Book: Grapes of Wrath because despite her Ivy League education, she cannot think of a single other book that she has read
Rosii Floreak
Rosii is a behavioral scientist whose job is to shape peoples’ decision-making, which is why you find yourself hungover and lifting weights on a Sunday morning when you would really prefer to be in bed. Rosii has mastered Shannon’s art of teaching class with coffee in hand. Unlike Shannon, she won’t pour it on you if you mess up the circuit.
Favorite person: Haley
Shirley Piper-Goldberg
Shirley commutes to work on a bike held together by stickers. She won the pushup contest at our trivia night and has been here ever since.
Favorite exercise: Pushups
Second favorite exercise: Softball
Third favorite exercise: Dancing
Fourth favorite exercise: Sticker-booking
Tara Saltow
We found Tara living in the wild at the top of Twin Peaks. She started coming to bootcamp and learned to speak and sleep indoors. Soon after she started teaching bootcamps and strength classes. Years of living off the land have made Tara strong.
Favorite Person: a weed eating goat she met near the Sutro Tower
Favorite Drink: fresh rainwater collected on big leaves
Thandi Guile
Thandi looks like a nice person. Then you take her class and you think, why would a nice person make me suffer like this? Thandi's TRX and Circuit classes are fun to take and funnerer to watch other people take while you sip coffee.
Favorite Muppet: Camilla the Chicken
Favorite Person: Camilla the Chicken
Favorite Exercise: anything where she's upside-down
Valeria Gonzalez
Valeria developed her teaching voice yelling at men on a tiny boat - yes she was a coxswain on Stanford Men’s rowing team. If she suddenly yells “row harder you assholes” just do what she says.
Loves: dogs, coffee, and the ocean
Hates: cats, tea and lakes
Victoria Norman
Victoria moved here from France but now she wears overalls. Understandably, they revoked her citizenship.
Favorite State: Ohio
Favorite Person: The Queen
Favorite Exercise: Cycling
Should your face be on this page? Want to teach with top-notch equipment and work with great instructors? Want to help people get fit and build a warm, welcoming fitness community?
Email Shannon to get in touch.