Speaker Bios

Irene Greaves

Irene Greaves is a Lovescaper. She believes learning to love should be the most important purpose of our educational journeys. Irene has a bachelor’s degree in Art History and a master’s in Education from The University of Pennsylvania. Irene is originally from Venezuela but considers herself a global citizen. She has dedicated her life to service through a wealth of international study, volunteer and work experience in the fields of education and community development in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, giving her a nuanced and unique view of the world that has allowed her to author her philosophy of life: Lovescaping. In the last 5 years, Irene has been teaching Lovescaping at public schools throughout Houston and beyond, working with students, teachers, and families to increase their capacity to cultivate self-love and practice love in action. Her first book, “Lovescaping: Building the Humanity of Tomorrow by Practicing Love in Action” was published in 2018.

Laura Zelaya

Laura Zelaya (she/her/ella), is a licensed master’s level social worker at The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. She received her Master of Social Work from the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, where she completed a macro concentration with a focus in health and behavioral health. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Spanish from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

Laura has extensive experience working with community organizations providing services to people that have experienced trauma, such as survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, and child abuse. Before joining The Young Center, she provided support as a social worker to children with hearing loss and their families. She has also worked as a pediatric speech language pathologist assistant.

Alyce Chu, LPC

Alyce Chu is a licensed professional counselor of nearly five years, and a Houston native of Taiwanese descent. She enjoys working with a variety of individuals, but especially teens and young adults. Her preferred method of practice is collaborative and eclectic, aiming to collaborate with clients while using a variety of tools and methods to help clients reach their goals. Alyce also has a passion for developing and designing mental health communications media with a soulful flair. In her spare time, she enjoys partaking in small arts and crafts projects, reading, or watching shows.

Gabriela Lopez-Compean

Gabriela Lopez-Compean received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Hispanic Studies from Rice University and her Juris Doctor from the University of Houston Law Center.  Gabriela was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 2016. Gabriela is the managing attorney at Justice for All Immigrants, an immigration legal services provider in Houston. She has experience in a variety of cases, including family-based immigration, naturalization, humanitarian relief, and removal defense. While in law school, she participated in both the civil and immigration clinics representing underprivileged clients, who were often victims of abuse. Because she was born in Mexico and spent her early childhood there, Gabriela has personally experienced the immigration process and understands its toll on immigrant families. She is passionate about helping others successfully navigate the immigration system. She is fluent in Spanish.

Ashley Willet

Ashley Willett is a graduate of the University of St. Thomas (B.A.) and Texas Christian University (M.A.). She taught for five years at Lee High School in HISD (now Wisdom), serving students who hailed from all corners of the globe. She then helped to found KIPP Generations Collegiate, where she served in a variety of leadership roles.  At DiscoverU, she has held a variety of positions including Director of Programs and Director of Development, and now leads the agency’s operations as COO.   She firmly believes in the transformative power of experiential learning, and that all youth, regardless of background or circumstance, deserve access to opportunities that broaden their worldviews and inspire them to design a life of choice and purpose.  A native Houstonian with a passion for TexMex, dogs, and theme parties, she’s a proud wife and mom of two spunky neurodivergent kids.

Shania Vensel “Shay”

Shania Vensel “Shay” is a high school student at William B. Travis Highschool. She loves anything to do with creativity and advocacy. She hopes to uses her personal experiences and what she learns from others to bring a change to our communities.

Camille Olson

Camille Olson is a rising 11^th-grade student at The Awty International School in Houston, Texas. Her hobbies include reading, traveling, volunteering, and exploring new places. In the future, she aspires to always work on bettering the community around her, as well as pursuing chemical engineering as her future career choice.

Tommy Wan

Tommy Wan is a high school senior at The Village School in Houston Texas. His main areas of interest lie in engineering, civic engagement, and music education. He is currently a youth organizing intern for OCA-Greater Houston, Council Member Tiffany Thomas’ office, and completed a voter education fellowship under Dr. Melissa Marschall at Rice University. He serves on the Mayor’s Youth Council, Youth Police Advisory Board Council, Mi Familia Vota’s environmental justice committee, and the CFCI Youth Council.

Megan Wilburn

Megan Wilburn has been an educator for 14 years. She has been a teacher, SpEd department Chair, Behavior Specialist, and School counselor. Most recently she founded a non-profit called M.O.V. E ( Mastering Obesity Values and Education), where she uses her personal and professional experience to promote mental and physical health in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas.

Linda M. Rodriguez

Linda M. Rodriguez, EdD is based in Houston, Texas, and is a fellow education colleague who has had her “boots on the ground” for the last 35 years working in the areas of leadership, program development and implementation, behavioral management, social and emotional learning, trauma and mental health. As Senior Director for School Behavioral Health, Linda leads and contributes to projects and initiatives to improve mental health systems for children and youth and provides leadership on The Meadows Institute’s state and local policy initiatives related to school behavioral health. Previously, Linda worked as District Coordinator of School Behavioral Health for Pasadena Independent School District in Texas and is a former teacher, counselor, assistant principal, principal, educational director for a career and vocational training program, and district coordinator for Pasadena ISD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Program. Linda has worked at all school levels—elementary, middle, and high school and in traditional, charter, and alternative school settings. She has led a district’s crisis response team and also coordinated and co-authored several awarded grant proposals that totaled over 4 million dollars. Linda serves on the HB 906 Mental Health Task Force and has been a keynote speaker and presenter for Alief ISD, Mental Health America of Southeast Texas, the Grant Halliburton Foundation of Dallas, and The Meadows Institute’s Okay to SayTM social media campaign. Linda has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Texas A&M University, a master’s degree in counseling from the University of Houston, a second master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of St. Thomas, and her doctoral degree in Administrative Leadership and Supervision from the University of Houston.

Rafael Castillo

Rafael Castillo is the instructor/manager at Gracie Jiu Jitsu in Houston, Texas.

Every month in the United States, three million children miss school due to fear of bullies. In the Gracie Bullyproof program, our goal is to instill your child with unshakable confidence so they can overcome bullies without violence.

Julia Holstine

Julia Holstine is a compliance analyst on the Mission and Strategy team at United Way of Greater Houston. She began her tenure at United Way as a program manager on the Out 2 Learn team supporting the improvement and equitable access of out-of-school time programming. She recently accepted her new role as a compliance analyst and works with funded agencies to oversee compliance-related efforts like financial and board governance health. In addition to her work, Julia serves as a member of the internal Diversity Cross-Functional Team and works to make United Way a place where staff feel like they can be their authentic selves. Prior to her work at United Way, she served as the program director for a local early childhood literacy organization, Books Between Kids. Julia holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. When not working, Julia enjoys spending time with her partner, Nathan, and their new puppy B. Rascal.

Paige Dustmann

Paige Dustmann is a dedicated social worker who has worked in the school system for 22 years. She has extensive experience serving children in elementary, middle, and high schools. She has expertise in assessing and identifying the needs of students and implementing plans to ensure success in academics as well as emotional, social, and developmental growth.

Robin Rettie

Robin Rettie, M.Ed., Special Education has a life-long history supporting individuals with neurological and genetic differences. Her sister, Laurie Lorraine Rettie (LLR), was challenged in her life due to microcephaly. In her honor, Robin founded Lighthouse Learning Resources (LLR), an educational consulting business supportive of collaborative relationships between parents and schools.

Robin is the creator of The Anchor Teaching Framework©, a scientific approach anchored in self-awareness through a sequential teaching curriculum regarding the following areas; Central Nervous System, 8 Sensory Systems, and the Limbic System. Research supported tools and strategies are uniquely combined to allow a child to take ownership of self-regulation, shifting the responsibility from educators and parents to the child managing their behavior.

Robin’s professional training includes a BA in General Education EC – 8 and Master’s in Special Education, extensive training in autism, curriculum, sensory processing, behavior, All Kinds of Minds; 8 neurological constructs of learning, Mediation and Negotiation Training, and Special Education Law. Areas of concentration include educational consulting with families and educators navigating public education, employment training, job coaching and company disability training, educators (Professional Development) and parent training anchored in the science of behavior and supported strategies to change behavior.

Gayle Fisher

Gayle is an activist mom of a rising 10th grader with learning differences. She is an educator, author, advocate, ally, and learning differences consultant, and has been living in the spectrum now 12 years. She teaches non-credit workshops as a pro bono adjunct at Lone Star College System (LSCS) Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL) campuses and out in the community. She is Founder at GettingSorted.com, Founding Co-Facilitator of SpecialNeedsSibs.org & OurTrainingCenter.org; and writes at IfWeLearnDifferently.com. She continues to serve the Center for School Behavioral Health Collaborative (CSBH), participates on several teams of Behavioral Health and Suicide Prevention Community Taskforce (BHSP) and on the boards of Cafe Azul and NAMI-Greater Houston, and has contributed to Autism Moms Are Beautiful. She loves to collaborate, and always has new projects she is working on, including Aprendemos Diferente, Lights! Camera! Action!, Share the Knowledge Brown Bag Lunch & Learns, a documentary series on Neurodiversity Stories of Heart, Challenge, Strategy, and First Responders Supports When Dealing with Neurodiversity. We also love our interns from Sam Houston State University (SHSU), College of Public Health. More can be found at GettingSorted.com and her consulting website. Gayle grew up on and worked on a farm in Illinois, the oldest of five. She then moved to Houston and worked 17 years in corporate America (construction, oil, gas, petrochemical and consulting). Seeking greater purpose, Gayle moved into education. She has earned a M.Ed., Ed.Tech. from Texas A&M, a B.B.A. in Finance from University of Houston, and a A.A. in Pre-Engineering from Houston Community College.

Dr. Ann Friedman

Ann Friedman, Ph.D., a psychologist, has studied mindfulness since 2007. She began sharing mindfulness as a volunteer and in 2015, received a Certification in Mindfulness Facilitation from the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. Currently, Ann is in the Certification Program for CBCT at Emory University. She has also completed courses through Mindful Schools and A Still Quiet Place. Through her company, Mindful Being, Ann teaches mindfulness classes for adults, teens, and children at The Houston Health Museum, Rothko Chapel, Jung Center, and Hines Center for Spirituality and her office. She provides training for businesses, non-profits, and area school districts. For ten years, Ann served as Adjunct Professor in the U.H. Counseling Psychology Graduate Program. She holds both a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from U.H. She completed her Internship in Clinical Psychology at U.T. Medical School and her Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at Baylor College of Medicine.

Zoe Njemanze

Zoë Njemanze, MPH is a consultant and design thinking specialist working to authentically present and address the needs of diverse communities. It was during her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin where she became familiar with the socio-cultural systems and factors that impact the health and mental well-being of communities of color. Zoë completed a capstone project entitled, Microaggressions: An Emerging Idea that Perpetuates Everyday Challenges, but an Understudied Risk Factor for Mental Health Outcomes in Black Americans (2018). Zoë takes specific interest in microaggressions and supporting one’s self-confidence and self-identity to combat the deleterious effects of racist experiences, a topic explored in her master’s thesis, A Case Study of Texas’ Universities Mental Health Professionals and Microaggressions of Black College Students Attending Predominantly White Institutions. Zoe has since worked with the Hiram Clarke Community Resiliency Project, UTHealth School of Public Health, MobilizeGreen and the University of North Carolina in capacities including, but not limited to, the social determinants of health, project implementation, anti-racism and diversity, equity and inclusion.