Natasha Gray is our organisation maven! She is a project manager in the business, Master of many trades and Shine From Within probably couldn’t run without her. Tash is based in the UK.

Adefolashade Fadeyi is a personal development expert for teens and the founder of Brighter Girls, Lagos Nigeria. She is a Certified Girl Empowerment Coach, Trained Youth Mentor and a Curriculum Developer with over 15 years of experience working with teen girls. Fola brings her enthusiasm and wisdom to some of our coaching calls in the Youth Mentor Training and facilitates a number of classes in our Online Academy.

Joelle

I’m Joelle Dürst, I’m 13 years old and from Zürich, Switzerland. I love reading, watching Netflix, playing video games and baking. I’m a bit shy and love to laugh. 🙂

Ruby

Ruby is 17 from Melbourne, she has a passion for self development and always loves to explore and grow in every opportunity. She also has an immense passion for social justice, and loves to raise awareness of important issues. In her spare time you can find Ruby on the yoga mat, doing Pilates or enjoying the outdoors. 

Grenita Brooks

FOUNDER, International Mentoring Society

Grenita’s experience in the mentoring profession has prompted an urgency to create an umbrella of organizations that will serve youth from every walk of life at any age and stage of development.

Grenita’s passion for underprivileged and underserved youth has lead her to an Associates of Art’s degree with a focus on Early Childhood Development, a Bachelor of Science in Social Work, a Children’s Services Certification, and is nationally credentialed in nonprofit management. Additionally, she has a master’s degree in clinical social work from the University of Central Florida.

Grenita has a background in Child welfare and Case management and she’s currently employed with Brevard Public School’s where she is a school-based social worker at McNair Magnet Middle School; the middle school she attended as a teenager.

Grenita shared her experience of starting a non-profit in the youth sector, what she thinks all youth mentors MUST have and how she is growing her organization.

Mikhara Ramsing

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

Mikhara Ramsing is a social entrepreneur from Brisbane, Australia. She runs two social enterprises in the human rights space: Miks Chai, which sells ethically sourced, environmentally sustainable delicious chai to create connection through storytelling; and Ethnic LGBT+, a national website providing a safe place for members of the culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) LGBTIQA+ community to share their stories.

She believes stories save lives and has travelled around Australia in a self-built tiny home connecting with rural youth. She has been nominated as the Young Australian of the Year QLD 2019, AFR Top 100 Women of Influence and was awarded a Westpac Social Change Fellowship enabling her to attend Harvard University and to work with LGBTIQA+ communities around the world.

In her guest teacher interview, Mikhara shares generously about sourcing funding, getting into schools, supporting youth in rural areas, collaborating with organisations, supporting LGBTQIA+ youth and more! 

Thania Siaw

PSYCHOLOGIST, Little Window

Thania is a compassionate, creative, gentle and intentional holistic Psychologist, and the co-founder of Little Window.  For over ten years she has worked with adults, adolescents, children and families in a variety of settings and roles including a child/adolescent and family therapist, group therapy program developer and facilitator, adult mental health psychologist, counselling and clinical supervisor, case manager, child psychologist, and lecturer at a leading training provider in counselling and community services.

Thania has published research in the area of stress, nightmares and personality, and has been interviewed on radio and television about cyber-bullying and coping with grief.

Thania and Christina share so much insight into the adolescent brain, how to soothe young people when they’re feeling anxious, common issues they see in their practice, how disconnection can show up in young people and triggers to watch out for that may indicate the need for additional support.

Josh Shipp

THE ‘TEEN WHISPERER’

Josh, aka “The Teen Whisperer” is a former at-risk foster kid turned teen advocate.  Hailing from the U.S. he’s the best-selling author of ‘The Teen’s Guide to World Domination,’ has spoken at Harvard, Stanford and MIT Universities and is a recognized teen expert for media outlets such as MTV, CNN, FOX, The New York Times and Good Morning America (oh and he’s been on Oprah).

His documentary TV series TEEN TROUBLE (A&E) followed his ground-breaking work with teens.  He’s worked with groups of parents, educators & mental health professionals plus has spoken to more than TWO Million teens live.

His ultimate goal is to help as many young people as possible. He trains other speakers through ‘Youth Speaker University’ and his online mentoring program for teens ‘A Year of Awesomeness’ has a world-wide reach.

Kim Smith

FOUNDER, Standing Strong

Kim Smith is the founder of Standing Strong Total Wellness Club for Girls, a unique membership program specially designed to help girls improve their confidence, self-esteem, self-belief, body-image, health and wellbeing. Based in West Perth, Standing Strong focuses on inspiring and assisting girls to develop the skills essential for living happy, healthy and inspired lives and offers ongoing connection and support to both girls and parents.

With a team of psychologists, counsellors, life coaches and health and fitness experts, the programs at Standing Strong are based around the philosophy of building connection and belonging between people. The aim is to help create bonds so girls and parents feel comfortable to open up, trust and not feel that they are facing the world alone.

  Cameron Airen

GENDER CONSULTANT

Cameron Airen is a Feminist Mindset Coach, Mentor & Gender Consultant, and the co-founder of the Feminist Coach Academy, who helps feminists feel more confident, at ease, and create the change they want in their lives and in the world! In addition, they work with solo-entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders and creatives to help them integrate next-level gender and social consciousness into their business and work so they can be a part of a growing movement of positive social change.

Cameron has a Masters degree in Anthropology & Social Change from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and a B.A. in Women & Gender Studies from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. She has 14+ years of experience studying feminism, gender, sexuality and social change.

In their guest teacher class, Cameron shared important tips on how we can ensure our work with youth is inclusive.

 Matt Kershaw

former CEO, yLead

His first experience in 2002 of a yLead youth conference sparked a journey of transformation from a young introvert, terrified of public speaking… to a confident young leader with a desire to enrich the lives of others. In 2005, after a major health scare, Matt travelled to Tanzania and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was here that he decided it was time to conquer an even bigger mountain, leaving his university degree to join yLead full time.  Since 2006, Matt has developed from a junior team member to one of the organisation’s key facilitators and CEO.

In his guest teacher interview, Matt shares about yLead’s school programs, conferences and overseas expeditions for teens.  He generously shares lots about how to please the client (often schools), while delivering content in an engaging way for the teens.  He also shares about how leadership training in schools is changing and the topics that schools are often looking for.

Heather Yelland

DIRECTOR, Green SuperCamp

Heather is the Director of the Green SuperCamp Australia programme, creating personal leadership, academic acceleration and environmental awareness education for young people aged 10 to 18 years.  Green SuperCamp has had 780 students through it’s doors over the last few years.  She has formal training in Psychology, Business, Family and Systems Theory, and Arts and has been a ‘people and business’ specialist for over 25 years.

In this guest teacher interview, Heather shares some of the latest research on young people today, how to truly connect with them and give them permission to express themselves in all their glory, how to create ‘communities of care’ for young people, why your age (young or old) doesn’t matter when it comes to working with youth and lots more.

Johanna Parker

YOUTH COUNSELLOR + COACH

Johanna is a life coach, speaker and counsellor through her beautiful business, Heart Sparks.  She supports women and adolescents to confidently embrace their uniqueness and live incredible, purposeful lives.
Johanna spent 7 years in social work, counselling service coordination and leadership within the not-for-profit and government sectors.  Now she spends her days being invited to speak in schools, at leadership camps, coaching and counselling her clients to create and sustain a life they love.

In Jo’s 2 guest teacher interviews (1 just wasn’t enough!), Jo shares about how she crafts her custom programs for youth organisations and schools, her tips for building rapport with students, how to build relationships in your local community, how to find your story and feel comfortable putting yourself out there and so much more.

Michael Maidens

LAUNCH SPECIALIST

Michael Maidens empowers people with a unique, systematic approach to create a thriving business to support creating an amazing lifestyle. He brings a unique combination of performance psychology learnt as a former full time athlete, systematic approach from writing business software for 10 years, together with his most recent focus of reaching and impacting an audience online. He’s come up with the strategy for some of the biggest online launches in the world, naming Food Matters and Hay House as some of his top clients. Most importantly, he shares a way of marketing that’s authentic and deeply rooted in service.

We were so lucky to have Michael join us at one of our Youth Mentor retreats and we captured the magic in this bonus expert class!