I am passionate about education and have been educating people in one way, shape or form for the past 29 years.

My evolution in education began as a social studies high school teacher in Chicago and continued in Metro Detroit.

I later worked as Executive Director of the nonprofit organization, BBFA (Building Better Families for Action), which focused on parent education about risky kid & teen behavior. It was during my tenure there that issues around parenting digital natives became a concern, so I created specialized curriculum and led educational programs for both parents and students that gave them answers to real-life questions about tech and social media use. I also worked with our volunteer board of directors on strategic planning, board training and development, and community relations.

After speaking to tens of thousands of students, parents, business leaders, and community groups about social media and tech use, I focused on figuring out a way to help kids (and adults) understand how social media posts could affect their future. This led to me to start The Social U, where we created proprietary technology to deliver detailed social media report cards that used IBM’s Watson to “grade” every post in a user’s history and get a personalized Social GPA that identified any post in a student’s past that had the potential to be problematic for their future.

For the past few years, I’ve focused on consulting in the areas of tech and parenting, as well as professional training on tech and social media use in the workplace.

An offshoot of my consulting work led me to work with a nonprofit on a youth mental health initiative to examine how schools and parents could help kids cope. As a result of that work, I created a Resiliency curriculum for parents and educators, and wrote a book on the subject called “The Resiliency Puzzle”. I now offer that training online.

I spend most of my time working with parents and students, both as a keynote speaker and a digital coach with private clients. I have a marquis digital parenting program called Control the Chaos, and offer multiple Pre-College programs for parents and students to ensure that what kids’ posted in the past doesn’t negatively impact their future and help them get their digital footprints ready to be seen by admissions officers and recruiters (Kaplan’s latest college admissions survey found that 66% of admissions officers consider an applicant’s social media “fair game” in the admissions process!)

In addition to my work with families, I also work with businesses and business leaders to develop and implement unique Intentional Digital Engagement Strategies that combine a personalized Digital Engagement Policy with Employee Advocacy Programs, with particular focus on live training and creating Employee-First content.