About
◆ I am the Founder and an Executive Coach at The Leadership Cooperative, a worker-owned collective dedicated to helping individuals and organizations across all sectors enhance their leadership, impact, and organizational effectiveness. I am also a new father and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Character & Leadership Development (JCLD). I serve as the Chair of the Board of Directors for LeanLab Education and on the advisory boards of Behavioral Scientist and Purpose Commons. I also advise various K-12 research and development initiatives, including the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF). Previously, I was executive director of Character Lab, where I helped secure over $30 million to advance scientific insights that help children thrive.
◆During my tenure at Character Lab, I founded the Character Lab Research Network (CLRN), which supported over 150 world-class scientists conducting school-based research. I also launched the Character Lab Internship Program (CLIP) to amplify youth voice in research and development. Together, we facilitated hundreds of studies resulting in dozens of publications in top-tier journals such as Science and Nature. To make these insights accessible, we created research-based Playbooks—featuring experts like Adam Grant, Daniel Kahneman, and Dan Ariely—and forged partnerships that placed them in venues ranging from TED-Ed to the back of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes cereal boxes.
◆Before my time as an academic and nonprofit leader, I got my first dose of character development and leadership experience in the military. My time in the U.S. Air Force Special Operations included combat deployments in Afghanistan and training special forces in Jordan and England.
◆A Cuban American from Miami, I completed my bachelor’s degree in psychology, master’s degrees in industrial and organizational psychology and teaching, and my Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland).
◆Feel free to reach out —I’m always looking for ways to pay forward the support I’ve received by connecting people, ideas, and opportunities. I believe in using my growing network to act as a knowledge broker and bridge, helping open doors for others the way so many have opened doors for me.
