Dr. Patricia Nunley is a teacher-educator and a Master Teacher who has served over 25 years as a teacher/educator; she is a tenured professor in Child Development & Families Studies at City College of San Francisco. In addition to teaching human development, trauma, and violence courses, she provides professional development training through Nubian Consult. While versed in Western pedagogy on human development and learning, Dr. Nunley embraces and strongly advocates for acknowledgement and respect for children’s cultural heritage as a foundational pathway for optimal development. As a scholar educator, Dr. Nunley published several journal articles, wrote two Black child development courses, and conceived a humanizing approach to teaching and learning entitled African Ubuntu Pedagogy or A-Up. Currently she is training community leaders to serve as Resident Research Advisors on a guaranteed income project for families with young children. She recently returned from South Afrika where she was a Fulbright Scholar exploring culture and wellbeing.

Raelene Ostberg is the Founder of and National Keynote Speaker for Thriving Together, an organization dedicated to bringing transformative professional development to early childhood educators and the trainers, leaders, and coaches who support them. She brings boundless energy, 17 years of experience in early childhood classrooms, 15 in toddler classrooms, and 25 years working with families. Since 2012, Raelene has completed training and education on stress and resiliency with Dr. Amit Sood through Mayo Clinic’s Stress-Free Living Program and was trained as a trainer of “The Resilient Option”, a framework to improve resilience, reduce stress, and build a positive work culture. Raelene obtained her B.A. in Theater and M.Ed. in Family Education from the University of Minnesota.

In addition to meaningful topics on reducing caregiver burnout, Raelene specializes in methods that help reduce stress, promote self-regulation skills, transform challenging behaviors, form strong caregiving partnerships, and guide those terrific toddlers. She brings a toolbox full of toddler teaching strategies that work wonders with these little humans (and the entertaining real-life stories to help teach others.) Her Inspiring Terrific Toddler series has received rave reviews from participants and helped transform challenging toddler classrooms and homes into fun and rewarding caregiving settings.

Participants love Raelene’s enthusiasm, entertaining presentation style, and theatrical storytelling that bring evidence-based strategies to life.  Each year, Raelene educates and inspired thousands of early childhood professionals nationally to support them in their critical work shaping young minds.

In her spare time, Raelene can also be found playing pickleball at the local courts, traveling to far off places, visiting her daughters in California, and enjoying life with her husband and pups near Northfield, Minnesota.

Ronald Mah is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist. Experiences include: author of “Difficult Behavior in Early Childhood,” 2006, “The One-Minute Temper Tantrum Solution” 2008, and “Getting Beyond Bullying and Exclusion, PreK-5, Empowering Children in Inclusive Classrooms,” 2009, Corwin Press and twenty e-books on therapy and couple therapy available at www.Smashwords.com; dvds on child development and behavior, community mental health, Severe Emotional Disturbance school programs, vocational and welfare-to-work programs, Head Start, supervising a high school mental health clinic, supervising therapists, private practice psychotherapy. Education experiences: 16 years in ECE, owner childcare center, elementary & secondary teaching credentials, college instructor, and the Board of Directors of the California Kindergarten Association. Co-Director of the MFT Masters Program at the Western Institute for Social Research, Berkeley. Also previously on the Board of Directors of the California Association of Marriage & Family Therapist; and the Eastbay Chapter of CAMFT as well as various CAMFT committees (including the Ethics Committee), and presenter for CAMFT conferences and symposiums.