Kathy Hegberg
Kathy Hegberg, Founder/Executive Director of FocusedKids. Kathy Hegberg has been a child and family therapist for 25 years, and she began working with the MindUP program in 2011, learning how to teach kids about their brains and developing a curriculum for parents.
In January 2013, Kathy started teaching “social-emotional” training at a local preschool, with the goal of teaching mindfulness techniques and information about the brain to help reduce stress in a population of kids from families who experience daily trauma and extreme stress. Within a couple of weeks, positive feedback from parents indicated a clear need to teach the parents as well.
A group from the Harvard Center for the Developing Child observed focused kids in the classroom, and their Foundations of Innovation decided to collaborate with FocusedKids to develop an evaluation plan. The first pilot study began in 2018 in the Roaring Fork School District.