I am an international child/youth advocate and the founder of the Institute for Community and Adolescent Resilience (www.icar-us.com.) I support youth and adults in measuring, creating, and sustaining developmentally rich ecologies for kids. I am the creator of the Student Support Card™, which measures “the other side of the report card” and co-creator of the Helping Kids Succeed series which has over 300,000 copies in print.
I served as the Director of Child/Youth Advocacy for the Association of Alaska School Boards between 1995 and 2004. I worked to increase the shared responsibility for educating and protecting all of Alaska’s children and youth. I was the leader of a team that raised millions of dollars for their statewide initiative – called Alaska ICE (Initiative for Community Engagement.) In addition to securing long-term, stable funding, millions more were “redirected” within partner agencies to support the vision of “connection rich” kids.
In the year 2000, I was honored by the Alaska Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Community as the “Prevention Professional of the Year” in 2000 and “Educator of the Year” by the Alaska Principal’s Association in 2001.
I have presented over 2,000 Keynotes, Workshops, and Trainings throughout the US and Canada, and in specific locations in Mexico, Belgium, and Namibia.