Moderated by Dr. Kristal Navarro, PsyD
Collaborative Counseling Program Director, Acknowledge Alliance

Dr. Kristal Navarro is a clinical psychologist with over 18 years of experience working mainly with marginalized communities. She grew up in Southern California, but has resided in the Bay Area for over 16 years. She has worked with Acknowledge Alliance in the Collaborative Counseling Program for over 14 years, collectively, starting as a graduate intern in 2006. Kristal earned her doctorate in psychology from The Wright Institute, in Berkeley, in 2012. And, she has been an adjunct professor for New York University since 2018, teaching Cross-Cultural Counseling or Individual Counseling – Theory and Process.

Dr. Meag-gan O’Reilly
Psychologist, self-worth expert, DEI Consultant, and Co-Founder of Inherent Value Psychology INC

Dr. Meag-gan (she/her) is a licensed Psychologist, self-worth expert, DEI Consultant, and the Co-Founder of Inherent Value Psychology INC. She completed her Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Stanford University where she was hired and served as a Staff Psychologist and Coordinator of Outreach Equity and Inclusion for six years. During this time, Dr. Meag-gan co-created the Outreach and Social Justice Seminar in 2016, which trains clinicians and psychiatry residents to be culturally conscious and justice-oriented. As a Lecturer in the Stanford School of Medicine, Dr. Meag-gan co-created and teaches Wellness 141: Thriving While BIPOC, an independently funded course created to meet the emotional and unique intellectual needs of Black students, Indigenous students, and all students of color.

Concurrent with her time at Stanford, Dr. Meag-gan is a highly sought DEI and mental health consultant and runs a private practice that centers the healing and thriving of BlPOC professionals. Dr. Meag-gan is the creator of therapeutic Healing Circles in partnership with companies such as Google, The San Francisco Ballet, Virgin Pulse, and the United Negro College Fund STEM Scholars Program. These spaces provide coping and resistance skills to assist employees in thriving, not just surviving. Notably, Dr. Meag-gan took to the TEDx stage in 2018 to remind us that our lives matter to the world. Dr. Meag-gan’s research and writings focuses on social justice, and her areas of clinical expertise include trauma, high functioning depression, high achiever stress (imposter syndrome perfectionism & Burnout) and social identities (particularly race, social class, and gender). She is the author of “Systems Centered Language: A Necessity to Speaking Truth to Power During COVID-19 and Confronting Racism.” Dr. Meag-gan deeply believes in equipping people with the best decolonized psychological science to empower and liberate communities.

Judith Gable, LCSW
Collaborative Counseling Program Clinical Supervisor & Consultant

Judith Gable received her BA from Raymond College (University of the Pacific) in 1977. She then attended Smith College School for Social Work, where she earned the degree of MSW in 1980 and LCSW in 1983. Her work experiences have been varied, including direct clinical work in community mental health, psychiatric and medical inpatient and outpatient settings. At Acknowledge Alliance, Judith has been Program Director of the Court and Community Schools Collaborative Counseling Program since 1996, and was a resilience consultant and acting Program Director for the Resiliency Consultation Program in the past. Judith also has a psychotherapy private practice in Mountain View, California as well as an interest in equine informed psychotherapy.

Gladys Gudino
Collaborative Counseling Program Psychotherapist

Gladys Gudino grew up in the Bay Area and is a first-generation college graduate. She earned a B.A. in History and Spanish from UCLA and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Correctional Psychology from Santa Clara University . For over eighteen years, Gladys has worked with youth in various settings including youth development, special and alternative education, high school and college success, juvenile detention camps and rehabilitation in foster care. She is a licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapist with a private practice in Los Altos. She also does consulting for local non-profits and works in the Sequoia Union High School District. Gladys has worked with both programs of Acknowledge Alliance during the last 7 years.

Eleanor Rosa Lammoglia-Morel
Collaborative Counseling Program Psychotherapist

Eleanor Lammoglia-Morel graduated from Stanford University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Minor in Human Rights. While at Stanford, Eleanor conducted her own, grant-funded, research on Adverse Childhood Experiences, which inspired her to pursue her graduate education in applied psychology. In 2022, she graduated with a Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling from NYU. Following graduation, she began working as a bilingual mental health therapist for New York Psychotherapy and Counseling Center (NYPCC). While at NYPCC, Eleanor served diverse populations across the Bronx, Queens, and East New York. In joining Acknowledge Alliance, Eleanor hopes to focus her therapeutic work to underserved teenage populations.

Jimin Choi
Math & Science Special Education Teacher, 7th Grade

Jimin has been a special educator for six years. At the age of four, she immigrated from South Korea to Sacramento, California. She moved to the Bay Area for college and graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Human Biology and later an M.A. in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies. She started her career in education through Teach for America and has been working at a charter school, district school, and a nonprofit organization since then. She loves collaborating with students, families, and student stakeholders to coordinate supports for her students and advocate for equity and justice. In her free time, Jimin enjoys reading on her Kindle, playing and coaching tennis, hiking, and playing with dogs. She currently lives in Sunnyvale.

Sherinda Gonder
English Language Arts Special Education Teacher, 7th Grade

Sherinda Gonder earned her masters degree in the Science of Teaching through an alternative teaching program called “New York City Teaching Fellows” at Pace University in Manhattan, New York City, New York. While earning her masters degree, she was also teaching full time and raising two young spirited daughters. She moved with her children to the Bay Area after earning her masters and teaching for two years in Brooklyn. With a teaching credential for New York, she had to work on getting her California teaching credential. Thus, she worked as a behaviorist in therapeutic classrooms in the Sunnyvale school district. Once she earned her California credential, she worked as a special education teacher and a general education teacher in Cupertino Union School district for quite a few years. Now, having returned to Sunnyvale school district, she is one of Sunnyvale Middle School’s 7th grade special education teachers. She specializes in English Language Arts and academic interventions/supports. Those two young daughters, at the early part of her teaching journey, are now amazing young adults. Her middle daughter is in Culinary School in New York and her oldest daughter is graduating college this year in Santa Cruz. She couldn’t be more proud of them. She added a son to her family and has an energetic headstrong son in 3rd grade at Cherry Chase elementary. In partial disbelief,  she approaches the end of her 18th year of teaching and looks towards the future with excitement.  She knows that teaching is the air she breathes and is eternally grateful for the relationships she has built over the years. 

Sheri Hess
Physical Education Teacher, 7th Grade

Sheri Ostrand-Hess has been working as a physical education teacher at Sunnyvale Middle School for the past 5 years. She has a masters degree in education with an emphasis in physical education, an administrative credential, and has taught at the elementary, middle school, high school and college level. Sheri has coached volleyball (indoor and beach) and taught science and physical education, special education, biology, health and agriculture.  As a coach, she built 6 different programs to be state contending teams and completed her coaching by winning a state championship. After retiring from coaching in 2013, she has moved her mission of building programs, to building and supporting students and classrooms. She has a passion for working with students that struggle with school and loves seeing them learn and grow as they embrace change. She is married to an internet securities engineer and has a grown stepdaughter that teaches PE and coaches volleyball in Texas, a 26-year-old film producer down in LA and recently lost a 22-year-old adopted son in 2021 to a fentanyl overdose. Supporting and encouraging students of all backgrounds is her passion and her mission. She is currently the athletic director and PBIS lead as well as starting out with this amazing group of teachers that took on this AST/SEL committee work. It has been a pleasure working with such dedicated, supportive, and creative people and these individuals are what makes this school a better place.

Caryn Shreve
Math Teacher, 7th Grade

Caryn Shreve is in her 5th year teaching math at Sunnyvale Middle School. As a student she struggled with math until she was a senior in high school and had a teacher who took the time to encourage her and supported her as a learner in math. Once she started her preliminary courses in college she continued to feel success in math. After that she realized that success in math often depends on a student’s confidence in their own abilities first, before anything based in mathematics. As she made steps toward teaching she continued her education with a focus on the importance of supporting the whole student. She was led to teaching from working at her mom’s preschool starting as a middle schooler herself. This opened her eyes early on into the importance of social emotional learning at all ages. Caryn has a strong belief that all students can find success when they are supported in their academics as well as having their social and emotional needs met. She has thoroughly enjoyed working on the Academic Support Time curriculum, which gives teachers an opportunity to connect with students and helps students feel supported as well as learn how to support themselves as they continue through school.

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