Meet the Team

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  • I believe in the power of our adolescents, and it's why I founded the Live Big Community.

    As a woman who is deeply passionate about mental health, I am certified as a Counselor with the Australian Institute of Professional Counselors, trained with the National Institute for the Psychotherapies in Child & Adolescent Development, and the Trauma Research Foundation in Traumatic Stress.

    As a coach, facilitator, and speaker, I’ve worked with teams at companies like Google, Microsoft, and Merck to create skills that help them connect with people.

    As a Faculty Associate of Entrepreneurship at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, I taught aspiring entrepreneurs how to become leaders and bring their visions to the market.

    As educators, leaders, and human beings, we have not just an opportunity, but a duty. That duty is to use all of the resources at our disposal to turn the tide on the mental health crisis and give our adolescents the opportunity to transform.

    If we can help our adolescents transform, they can transform the world.

  • Breean is passionate about empowering adolescents, educators, and counselors with confidence, resilience & self-leadership skills so they can lead fulfilling lives.

    As the former Chief Product Officer at Habits at Work, Breean spent a decade researching and applying methods to help people change their mindsets and behaviors.

    She designed and facilitated skill-based training programs for some of the world’s largest companies, including Google and Subaru.

    She has a background in branding, service design, and storytelling. Breean earned a Master of Communications from DePaul University.

    Breean is certified in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy and Yoga Nidra.

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  • Ken is a School Counselor at Central Park Middle School in Schenectady, where he collaborates with students, staff, and parents to ensure every student has the support they need to overcome barriers and achieve success. Ken’s educational journey began in teaching and special education before becoming a counselor in 2020.

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  • Emily is passionate about cultivating and supporting diverse educators who can make a positive impact in their school communities. She brings a wealth of expertise in teacher education, educational leadership, and systems development. She thrives on collaborating with various stakeholders to ensure the success of teachers and students.

    Emily Grossberg comes to Live Big with two decades of education experience. She started her career as a teacher with TFA in East San Jose and then she taught in East Oakland. She came to SFUSD first as an instructional coach and then as a school administrator. Her last position in SFUSD was as a Lead Coach for Induction and Pathway to Teaching.

    Once she became a mom, she shifted her focus to supporting new teachers as a consultant/trainer and residency director at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. In addition to being a Live Big coach, she is also a community school coach with CSLX and an independent consultant.  

    Emily and her husband live in San Francisco with their 3rd and 5th graders.  Emily loves to go on outdoor adventures and spend time with friends and family.

  • Robin guides the development of all Live Big curricula and supports the integration of evidence-based practices and research with a trauma-informed lens.

    Robin is also the Co-Director of National Institute for the Psychotherapy’s Child and Adolescent Trauma Program, where she leads the program, develops curriculum and teaches. She runs a private practice working with children, adolescents and adults. She recently retired from the NYU Silver School of Social Work after 18 years as an adjunct assistant professor, and continues to teach in their Post-Grad Child and Family Program.

    Robin is a graduate of the NYU Silver School of Social Work and The National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) Three Year Child and Adolescent Analytic Training Program.

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  • Hansa started her teaching career in 2001 teaching middle school and high school before becoming a math coach for envision schools. She has been an educational consultant for SFUSD for over a decade

Meet the Advisory Board

An experienced team of educators, therapists, curriculum designers, and facilitators

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  • Jen has been an equity-centered educator for over 25 years as a teacher, instructional coach, school principal, district leader, and now a leadership coach.

    Jen holds a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education and Spanish from The Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Arts in Language and Literacy Acquisition and Elementary Education, as well as a Reading Specialist degree from San Francisco State University.

    She is currently earning her Educational Doctorate from East Carolina University’s International Cohort in Educational Leadership. Her doctorate is focused on how social justice leaders foster conditions to create schools as beloved communities for students, families, and staff.

    Jen is deeply passionate about supporting current and future educators, administrators, and systems to question their practices in order to interrupt systemic inequities baked into our system and achieve equity.

Advisory Board Member

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  • Elaine’s expertise lies at the intersection of education, storytelling, and community engagement. She is the Director of Communications at Claremont Unified School District and has a deep background in both education and journalism as a news reporter, editor, and producer. Elaine holds a BA in Broadcast Journalism from CalState Fullerton.

Advisory Board Member

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Advisory Board Member

  • Nadja is a strategic operations and learning leader with over a decade of experience driving innovation across the education and edtech sectors. She lead cross-functional teams to scale educational programs, enhance product quality, and drive sustainable growth through operational excellence and strategic alignment.

    Now as the Founder & Principal Consultant of Collective Ideation Consulting, Nadja partners with companies to build high-impact strategies across learning product design, organizational transformation, and team performance. Her work spans global product innovation, CTE (Career & Technical Education), customer success, and large-scale implementation—always grounded in data, equity, and outcomes.

    With a proven track record of leading through complexity, Nadja specializes in transforming vision into execution, helping mission-driven organizations scale smartly, sustainably, and with intention.

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  • Melba is an executive and operations leader, a strategic planning and execution expert, and an aspiring chef. Melba offers strategic planning abilities, a background in change management, and a forward-thinking mindset. She brings an impressive history of surpassing ambitious business goals while demonstrating executive leadership in operations and compliance. Melba is a resilient leader leveraging adaptability, empathy, problem-solving, leadership, negotiation, and technology while driving innovation and supervision of multidisciplinary teams.

Advisory Board Member

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  • Leslie Flatt is a behavior consultant for Marshall County Schools in Benton, Kentucky. She has a bachelor's degree in special education (Grades K-12) and a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education (Birth-Kindergarten). Additionally, she is a National Board Certified Teacher, Exceptional Needs Specialist, Mild/Moderate Disabilities.

Advisory Board Member

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  • Arielle is a psychiatric nurse practitioner graduating from NYU. She has a full-time private practice specializing in working with young women in the areas of anxiety, depression, trauma, and life transitions. 

Advisory Board Member

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  • Emma Garrett-Nelson is the Chief Communications Officer at the Colorado Department of Education overseeing the department’s internal and external communications, public relations and media engagement, and digital platforms. She has worked in the nonprofit sector for nearly 20 years with a focus on public education for the last decade.

    Prior to joining the CDE team, Garrett-Nelson worked as the chief of staff at Washoe County School District, the second-largest district in Nevada with 60,000 students and 7,000 employees. In that role, she helped to lead first-year implementation of the district’s strategic plan while building systems and structures to strengthen organizational readiness and accountability.

    Garrett-Nelson also spent eight years leading strategic communications at Tulsa Public Schools, the largest public school district in the State of Oklahoma serving 33,000 students in grades pre-K-12. She managed communications and public relations for the district during the 2018 Oklahoma teacher walkout, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 Bond for Tulsa Public Schools, a $415 million package that passed with 73% voter approval.

    Garrett-Nelson’s experience includes roles in the Office of the Commissioner at the Rhode Island Department of Education; Gordon School, an independent school serving students in nursery-8th grades; and as the lead field organizer for the successful campaign to pass marriage equality legislation in the State of Rhode Island.

    Garrett-Nelson holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Temple University and a master’s degree in administrative leadership from the University of Oklahoma. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Leadership Studies program at Louisiana State University, Shreveport. 

Advisory Board Member

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  • Danielle’s passion lies in improving educational outcomes and opportunities for students through disruptive technologies, innovation, leadership, creativity, and communication. Her goal is to actively influence the conversation and direction of the K12 EdTech space both from the political stage and in the industry. She is an investor, growth stage influencer, and sales leader in the education technology sector, and is currently SVP of Sales at Cignition to connect students to math and literacy virtual tutoring.

Advisory Board Member

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  • Todd is a former White House Appointee to the US Department of Education and spent the last 14 years working with education agencies to promote all areas of education including assessment and curriculum platforms, parental engagement, and special education platforms. He partners with education companies and non-profit education entities across the country at the district, state, and federal levels.

Advisory Board Member

Interested in becoming a Live Big Community School Counselor in Residence? Email Lex to learn more about the program