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 working for 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.

Yolanda Gonzales has more than 10 years of experience working with families in our Roaring Fork Valley. In this role, Yolanda is passionate about supporting parents and children to strengthen healthy relationships and mental health by spreading information about tools and strategies to support healthy brains, self-regulation, and co-regulation.

Yolanda has been able to put the Master’s in Social Work she earned at Metropolitan State University to good use in favor of our community. Over the years, Yolanda has been working with the most vulnerable people in our Latino community, including children of all ages and parents. After joining FocusedKids, her work focused entirely on supporting families’ mental health and overall well-being. As part of her job, she is always finding connections and partnerships with other organizations to reach more families with our FocusedKids method.

Before joining FocusedKids, she worked for four years as a family liaison and parent support program manager at the Family Resource Center of the Roaring Fork Valley School District. Yolanda is originally from Peru and also worked with families before she moved to this country. When Yolanda is not at work, she loves to spend time with her 5-year-old son exploring the beautiful surroundings of this valley, embarking on fun little adventures, cooking, and celebrating life.

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!”

Claire Winchester, PhD, BCBA-D, LBA is an early childhood behavior coach, consultant, and researcher. Her specialty is translating research into practical, everyday behavior solutions for the adults who spend the most time with young children – parents and teachers. Her business and nonprofit ventures include teacher training and coaching, parent coaching, behavioral research, and community enrichment projects around the world.

She supports FocusedKids’ program evaluation and data collection/analysis projects!

Suzanne Vitullo is a FocusedKids Classroom Trainer and Parent Coach. She is also a teacher of 20+ years who loves working with children, parents, and teachers. Suzanne has taught elementary school, middle school, and adult education. She loves sharing social-emotional skills with kids and helping them find their inner resources through mindfulness tools. The skills she teaches have benefited her personally as a teacher and parent. Suzanne is a K-12 teacher, 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. She wholeheartedly believes in the mission of FocusedKids, which is to develop healthy brains and self-regulation strategies as essential life skills. She enjoys being a mom, spending time outdoors, and practicing yoga in her free time.

Work history: ELD at Basalt, Crystal River and CMC.
6th/7th grade Language Arts in Boulder
Most recently: 5th/6th grade Science for Douglas County Schools

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.