About Us.

Cerebrate – Our Story and Team

Our Purpose

Cerebrate is an innovative provider of an executive function curriculum and evaluation that foster the development of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive skills for learning.  We partner with schools, educators, and practitioners to evaluate student need, create customized curriculum, and monitor growth in eight areas of executive function: self-control, self-monitor, emotional control, flexibility, task initiation, working memory, planning, and organization.  Together, we empower learners by teaching practical strategies and systems to overcome challenges and achieve learning success.

Our History

Cerebrate’s parent company, Lively Minds Institute, has been teaching educators to develop their students’ executive function skills for over a decade. We have witnessed struggling students seen as unmotivated, unfocused, or low performing develop strategies to help them achieve greater academic success. We have experienced the fulfillment of educators who reached their students without lowering expectations. We have watched the transformation of students convinced they could not reach their goals start creating plans to use their strengths. Over the course of the pandemic, when students were falling even further behind, we created a way to make our curriculum accessible to schools with the goal of helping more educators and students.

From our work, we are keenly aware of the challenges educators and students face daily. Our solution combines assessment with instruction to provide a simple way to target and address student needs. This method makes the most of limited teaching time while also increasing the impact of skill development by getting to the root of the learning challenges. Our proven system provides the flexibility for educators to consider all areas of executive function, rather than focusing on a skill that may not be the greatest area of need for their unique group of students or the content they are teaching.

As we continue to work with educators in many different capacities, we pay close attention to changing needs as the climate of education fluctuates. Our team regularly adds relevant content, creates new lessons, updates current platform features, and develops additional aids. We live what we teach as we continue to increase our impact for student growth.

Our Commitment

Cerebrate’s versatile executive function solution blends an evaluation and customization system with a curriculum rooted in evidence-based best practices.  We are committed to providing simple ways for educators to help students develop skills through user-friendly technology, actionable data, quality content, and a passion for educator support.

Our Leadership

“My background in psychology and education coupled with a passion for empowering students has created a drive to create solutions for students over the past decade. Working with struggling students gave me valuable insight into the need for skill development, while working with educators showed me the need for practical, simple, effective resources.  Together with a talented team of professionals, we’ve been able to draw upon own experiences to create Cerebrate, a tool for educators to assess need, access lessons, and target their instruction. We strive to affect lasting and impactful change by helping students see what they can achieve when they have the skills for learning success.”

Candace Heiken, M.Ed. Executive Director

"My experiences as an Instructional Coach and middle school Teacher create a unique ability to think like a classroom teacher yet relate to the needs of school administrators. I strive to advance Cerebrate's mission by tailoring our curriculum to meet the needs of students with practical, efficient, and comprehensive executive function materials. Our team continually reviews, improves, and adds to our curriculum, resulting in the best possible outcomes. I wholeheartedly feel that all students can benefit from executive function instruction to help them become lifelong learners. Cerebrate provides me with an opportunity to make a tremendous impact on the lives of children across the country."

Caron Johnson, M.Ed.   Director of Curriculum and Training 

“The past twenty years as an administrator and teacher at various schools have allowed me to see the needs that keep students from succeeding both in the classroom and in other areas of their lives. I have worked with educators and parents who are looking for answers, and I have collaborated with them to figure out the next steps. I choose to be a part of Cerebrate each day because I know there are children in schools who want to feel successful but who don’t have concrete steps to help them achieve their ambitions. I like that we have developed materials that are easy for teachers to use and simple for students to understand. It is not a curriculum that is going to sit on a shelf!”

Linda Scoville, M.Ed.  Director of Outreach

“After talking with schools across the country regarding their students’ struggles, I have gained valuable insight into what causes many of their challenges and how schools can help with the right resources.  The events in the past few years have really brought to light the need for students to learn executive functions skills, and I choose to advance Cerebrate’s mission because I like that we are able to reach all kinds of students. By taking a solution like Cerebrate to the school level, we can help ensure that this type of skill instruction is available to students who may not receive it otherwise.”

Gina Rossi,   Director of Operations

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