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Who we are

Ellen from Bright MorningEllen from Bright Morning
Nick from Bright Morning.

The Bright Morning Story

Elena Aguilar began designing and facilitating professional development for educators in 2004. Following the publication of her first two books, and in response to the demand for her trainings from educators around the world, she founded Bright Morning Consulting in 2017.

Our Name

Anything can happen on a bright morning. The sun casts light on our paths, the crisp air rejuvenates our bodies, and the chirping of birds activates our hope. A bright morning is electric with potential. It invites us to envision the future we want to live in and then take action towards creating that reality.

What Our Community is Saying

“Words cannot describe the impact Elena, her team and their program has had on myself, my clients and our classrooms across our region and the Teach for America organization as a whole. I am very excited to keep on practicing and getting better!”

Adam Morales
What Our Community is Saying

“The incomparable coach extraordinaire, Elena Aguilar, beautifully combines narrative, theory, and practice to guide educational leaders on how to center humanity, equity, and love in their coaching so that they can create the conditions for adults and students alike to thrive.”

Dena Simmons
What Our Community is Saying

"Not only have I met my goals to deepen my coaching practice, but I’ve adapted many of Aguilar’s tools as standards/ guides for how we do coaching as an organization. Bright Morning really sets the bar for a comprehensive model for coaching teachers or really any role."

Molly D.
What Our Community is Saying

“Elena and her team’s involvement in the development of our coaching program and training of our instructional coaching staff has been paramount to the success that we have seen and will continue to see. Working with them has been one of the best decisions we’ve made.”

Christina Wildhagen
What Our Community is Saying

“The thoughtfulness, flexibility, and depth of Bright Morning’s training complemented the thoroughness of Elena’s book. I deeply respect the compassion of their work and highly value the tools they have shared with me and my colleagues. We are better equipped to nurture, inspire, and patiently transform the schools we love.”

Aubrey Caldwell
What Our Community is Saying

“Words cannot describe the impact Elena, her team and their program has had on myself, my clients and our classrooms across our region and the Teach for America organization as a whole. I am very excited to keep on practicing and getting better!”

Adam Morales
What Our Community is Saying

“The incomparable coach extraordinaire, Elena Aguilar, beautifully combines narrative, theory, and practice to guide educational leaders on how to center humanity, equity, and love in their coaching so that they can create the conditions for adults and students alike to thrive.”

Dena Simmons

Our Approach

Change requires learning

Our schools must be transformed in order to become equitable places of learning. This requires learning, and unlearning, on the part of adults leading in schools. We focus on transforming the process and experience of learning for adults as the key lever for transforming schools. If we, the adults, learn to learn more effectively, then we can change our schools. If leaders and coaches learn to facilitate transformational, effective learning, then we can change our schools.

Change starts with the individual

We start with the smallest unit, the individual. We offer tools to make an individual’s experience transformational first, and then focus on the group. We support groups of adults to learn together, acquire skills to build effective teams, and improve organizational learning conditions. Our work toggles back and forth between group dynamics and an individual’s leadership. When teams reimagine their own way of operating, it opens the door to reimagining entire systems.

Change requires resilience and equity

Both are necessary foundations for transformation, and often neglected in conversations about school transformation. We know that the work of equity cannot be done without an understanding and acceptance of emotions; we recognize that we need resilience to do the work of equity.

Learning Principles

Our trainings are guided by these beliefs

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Safety is essential for learning.

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A problem-centered orientation facilitates deepest learning.

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Participants need practice.

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Learning is a path for individual and collective liberation.

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Learners are the experts on themselves and their context.

The Bright Morning Team

Elena Aguilar

Founder and CEO
(she/her)

Becky Barstein

Lead Presenter
(she/her)

LesLee Bickford

President
(she/her)

Stacey Goodman

Co-Founder
(he/him)

Jess Levasseur

Community Expansion
(she/her)

Jennifer Liu

Operations
(she/her)

Cary Meyers

Business Operations
(she/her)

Sarah Ann Snipes

Expansion and Partnerships
(she/they)

Antoinette Strain

People and Partnerships
(she/her)

Ellen Vanden Branden

Operations and Communications
(she/her)

In Residence

In addition to lending us their talents, our “in residence” team members also have professional lives outside of Bright Morning.

Drea Beale

Presenter

(she/her)

Nick Cains

Presenter

(he/him)

Carol Owala

Senior Associate, based in Nairobi, Kenya

(she/her)

Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question about Bright Morning or Elena? Review our FAQs!

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Contact

Reach out to our team with any inquiries or feedback.

Get in Touch

Careers

Join our team working to build resilient, equitable communities.

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