Amanda Petersen is the Executive Director of FocusedKids and is the facilitator of their highly rated professional development series for teachers and parent coaching series. She is also the lead classroom trainer for the FocusedKids team.

Before starting at FocusedKids in 2018, Amanda taught preschool, kindergarten, and first grade in the Roaring Fork Valley on the western slope of Colorado. Amanda holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Master’s of Arts Degree in Clinical Mental Health. When not attending to the duties of FocusedKids, Amanda also offers grief and loss counseling to children, adolescents, and adults. Additionally, Amanda has a private practice offering counseling services in the Roaring Fork Valley.

She shares her personal life with her husband of 16 years and two children, ages 16 and 12. She spends her free time running in the mountains and practicing yoga and mindfulness meditation.

Started with FocusedKids 7/2017.

Yolanda was born and raised in Peru and moved to the United States in 2009. Since then, she has been helping the most vulnerable people in the Roaring Fork Valley while working in different organizations that support her values. After joining FocusedKids in 2019, she became our bilingual trainer who delivers our FocusedKids model to Latino families and cultivates connections with other organizations in this Valley.

Yolanda has earned her bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Social Work and is working toward her Clinical Social Work license. Her goal is to reduce or remove socio-economic barriers that prevent children and parents from accessing mental health in a timely manner and become a resource that promotes healthy relationships between parents/caregivers and children.

She lives in Glenwood Springs, and enjoys going on adventures with her 4-year-old son and eating delicious homemade meals.

Started with FocusedKids 7/2020.

Suzanne is a K-12 teacher of 20+ years who is passionate about working with children and their parents. She has taught at Basalt Elementary, Crystal River Elementary, and Colorado Mountain College.

Suzanne is also a yoga instructor, a Mindful Parenting coach, and the creator of Breathe Parenting, LLC, which teaches parents tools and practices to find calm in the chaos of family life.

Started with FocusedKids 08/2024

Shannon Campbell has had the joy and privilege of working with young children and families for over 40 years. She has worked in a variety of settings as a kindergarten and preschool teacher and director, a special educator, and a family/teacher trainer and coach.

Over her career as an educator, she has seen the importance of self-regulation and self-awareness in order to learn and grow. Empowering children, teachers, and families in awareness and control of their own emotions and behavior has become a cornerstone of her work.

“FocusedKids has given me the tools to support children, families and students in the most important and fundamental way. It makes learning about our brain and self-regulation meaningful and fun! It really has changed my teaching, how I educate, and my interactions with children, families and staff. I am thrilled to be part of the FocusedKids team to share this wonderful, vital information with families, teachers and children!”

Started with FocusedKids 08/2018

Shayla is the Design, Marketing, and Brand Strategist behind Design Finch, LLC. She specializes in visual identity creation and development of integrated communications for clients that include large corporations, events and conferences, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and small businesses in a variety of industries. She also established the in-house design department at Dentsply International, a Fortune 500 company, where she led a creative team that produced strategic marketing collateral for more than 20 brands of dental products.

Her involvement with FocusedKids began with a parenting workshop she completed when her eldest child was three years old. Although that squishy toddler is now older, she continues to use strategies from FocusedKids daily with her two sons (ages 8 and 5) to maintain a calm and connected home.

Started with FocusedKids in 03/2020.

Amanda is an illustrator and educator based in Baltimore, Maryland. She previously served students and families as a 5th grade teacher in Glenwood Springs and is excited to contribute to the amazing work at FocusedKids, supporting the design of workbooks, lessons, and online modules.

Amanda has her 200-hour yoga teaching certification and is a strong believer in the power of mindfulness and brain-based education in classrooms.

Started with FocusedKids 02/2024.

Amy has worked as a grant-writer for the University of Colorado-Denver for nearly 12 years focusing on substance use and mental health. In her independent business, Amy Neustadt Consulting, LLC, she has also consulted with more than 15 nonprofit organizations in Colorado, including FocusedKids to research grant opportunities, prepare grant concepts and applications, and submit grant applications and grant reports to a variety of funders.

Previously, she served as Program Officer at the Colorado Health Foundation in the Health Coverage area and Research and Program Director of the Family Planning Section within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Chicago.

Amy received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana and a Master’s of Public Health from Emory University.

Started with FocusedKids 2/2023.

Rebecca is a passionate, dedicated teacher, mother, musician, naturalist, gardener, and yogi. Rebecca started her journey with children in college, working at nature centers. After graduation, she received a certificate in environmental education and began teaching children of all ages at different outdoor education centers around the country. Eventually finding her way to Colorado,

Rebecca found a niche with preschoolers. As a teacher at Forest Preschool over the past 13 years, Rebecca focuses on experiential education, a spirit of adventure, and connection with others and the natural world. Her background as a yoga teacher and some training in mindfulness with FocusedKids led Rebecca to use methods of focus and mindfulness with her classes. She saw positive changes including more focused and engaged students after only a short time.

Now, Rebecca is thrilled to work with FocusedKids where she can share her experience in classroom management, music, and mindfulness.

Started with FocusedKids 10/24.

Mellie Test has nearly 30 years of professional design and marketing/communications experience. She supported large and small nonprofits, large corporations, small businesses, and the Federal Government in Washington, DC before moving to the Roaring Fork Valley in 2014. Mellie’s comprehensive suite of skills include project management; marketing account management; graphic, web, and application design; copywriting; email marketing; search engine optimization, and social media.

Started with FocusedKids 02/24.

Claire is an early childhood behavior coach, consultant, and researcher with a specialization in supporting the families, teachers, and organizations that support young children. She has extensive training and experience in utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research methods to test, evaluate, and modify educational and clinical programs.

Her consulting clients range from non-profit preschools in the Roaring Fork Valley to advocacy organizations in Saudi Arabia to grant-funded community initiatives in rural Mexico.

Started with FocusedKids 05/2024

Kathy has lived in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley for 45 years, where she raised her only son. Her professional life has been diverse, but always with an eye on children. Working in the ’70s at a family crisis center, owning and operating the Short Short toy stores in Aspen, Snowmass, and at the Broadmoor Hotel in the ’80s, founding the Aspen Education Foundation in the early ’90s, she has always loved working with kids, or on their behalf.

In the mid-’90s, she returned to graduate school at the University of Colorado-Denver, and completed a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, focusing on children and families. Since then, she has had a private practice locally and has worked privately and within the local public schools and programs providing special groups for struggling kids. In 1999, and for ten years, she was hired by the University of Colorado-Denver as an adjunct professor to teach child and family counseling courses in the Master’s level program.

In 2010-12, she was involved with Goldie Hawn’s program, MindUP, as a volunteer program developer, trainer, and interim Director for the U.S. program. In 2013, she decided to re-focus her attention on the Roaring Fork Valley and developed a program called FocusedKids™ to teach preschoolers basic executive function skills. She piloted FocusedKids in the Valley Settlement Project’s mobile preschool, El Busesito, serving a low-income immigrant population. With success there, FocusedKids™ has now expanded to include grades k-5 in elementary schools from Aspen to Rifle, Colorado, and Arizona. Teachers and parents participate so that the skills learned can be reinforced at home and in the classroom. Using puppets and simple calming and focusing lessons, kids learn about their brains and how to self-regulate and focus their attention. The goal is to positively affect early brain architecture by teaching age-appropriate skills that support healthy life outcomes.

She recently transitioned from the position of Executive Director and now serves on the board of FocusedKids.

She is happily married, has a wonderful son, daughter-in-law, two granddaughters, and a wonderful labrador retriever, and loves to hike, bike, kayak, and read.

Toddy Walters (she/her) is a local Roaring Fork Valley resident who specializes in nonprofit development and grants consulting. Transitioning from a Human Resources career in 2018, she became the Colorado Grants Guide® Manager for the Community Resource Center in Denver, taking a deep dive into the funder landscape of Colorado. A Covid pivot landed Toddy into the freelance world of grant writing where she supported grant development for organizations in permanent supportive housing, mental health services, education and the arts. Toddy is also a multi-faceted artist who has performed in theater, film, television, and commercials both as an actor and a recording/touring vocalist. She is thrilled to support the important work FocusedKids does in fundraising and donor development.