ABOUT ANDREA

For 32 years, I taught emergent literacy — first as an elementary teacher, then as a reading specialist, and eventually as a professor at Saint Mary's College of California. I loved the work. I was good at it. And for a long time, I told myself it was enough.

But something kept nagging at me. I'd built a successful career helping others find their voice through literacy, yet I'd spent decades ignoring my own. I had the credentials, the stability, the respect — and a gnawing sense that I was playing it safe. So, at midlife, I did the thing that terrified me most: I walked away from everything I knew to pursue the work I was meant to do. That leap led me to become a Professional Certified Coach and to create the Name, Claim and Reframe® methodology — a proven framework for helping people break through the inherited stories that have been quietly running their lives. My book, Name, Claim & Reframe: Your Path to a Well-Lived Life, was featured on the TODAY Show as 2023's best motivational read.

But here's what the credentials don't tell you: I know what it's like to have the external markers of success and still feel like you're holding back. I know the weight of playing small to keep others comfortable. I'm a warrior in recovery — someone who spent years armored up, leading with drive instead of truth. And I know what it takes to choose growth over safety, and how transformative that choice can be. I spent three decades helping people crack the code of print. Now I help them crack the code of themselves — guiding thoughtful people doing real work in the world through the same process that changed my life. We don't just talk about what's possible — we dismantle what's been holding you back and build something true in its place.

I bring an M.Ed. from UC Berkeley, three decades in education, and coaching certification from the Co-Active Training Institute — alongside deep intuitive work that I trust as much as the research. Grounded in research. Guided by intuition. Always questioning what 'should' be done in favor of what's actually true.

I believe transformation happens when we stop performing and start listening — to the whispers, the nudges, the inconvenient truths we've been avoiding. I'm still in the Bay Area where I started, still married to Bill after 37 years, still asking myself the hard questions — and helping others do the same.