It takes a village.
We exist to help teenagers fulfill their potential.
Life puts a lot of pressure on teenagers these days.
Our expert team of professional educators helps teens and their families navigate the challenges that school, social pressures, family dynamics, college admissions, and life can present. Collectively, we have decades of experience and have helped thousands of students.
Our Philosophy:
Once you address what’s below the surface, the rest comes naturally.
Our coaching methods are rooted in the fields of adolescent development, positive psychology, and mindfulness. They are based on years of research and experience in schools - we address root causes, not just symptoms to help teens thrive.
Plus— we make it fun.
“Meeting with my coach has started to help me figure out who I am as a person and what I care about, which has been something I have struggled with for a long time.”
— A.K., age 14
Meet our Founder
The Village Team
(mouse over our pics to see how we look on Zoom)
CATHY CHEN
As a former admissions officer and after 13 years at a rigorous Silicon Valley prep school, Cathy saw the immense pressure teens were under to "succeed" - AKA attend a prestigious college. She noticed that even the ones who were successful weren't necessarily happy. Rather than treating college as the final destination, Cathy started Village Coaches to teach students the habits, skills, and mindsets that set them up for a lifetime of success. She practices radical empathy and deep listening, which comes from her own struggles as a teen. Most recently, she was a college counselor and Dean at Menlo School. She has a Master's degree in Prevention Science from Harvard University and is an expert in adolescent development. She and the team at Village Coaches share a simple philosophy: they believe in teens and want to help them live lives of purpose and meaning.
Suzi Nam
Over the past 20+ years, Suzi has counseled and mentored hundreds of students through their day-to-day and major life decisions, usually in intense and high-pressured environments. What she’s learned throughout her journey as an educator is that when a student has a mentor in their lives who loves them and truly sees them, their potential is limitless. Rooting her practice in equity, inclusion, and belonging, she has deep expertise in honoring each person’s varied life experiences and backgrounds. Suzi’s academic training is in the social sciences, which informs her multifaceted worldview. She is the former Director of Admissions at Swarthmore College and has, most recently, been a college counselor at college prep and boarding schools in Philadelphia and suburban Pennsylvania.
Laurie Schoeffler
Teaming with learners has been at the heart of Laurie’s career. She has shared time together with preschoolers to young adults in school, clinic and private practice settings for well over thirty years. With degrees in child development and education, certifications in regular/special education and educational therapy, and extensive professional training with a preference for programs informed by cognitive neuroscience, she has specialized in foundational skill and executive functioning development. Laurie recognizes learning as a lifelong, complex process that is facilitated best by the individual learner. She believes that demystifying an individual’s learning process creates a foundation for long term growth and success. It is a learning journey she loves to share with all ages.
Meredith Herrera
While Meredith’s Master's in Human Development and School Counseling and two decades of experience as a prep school administrator, college counselor, and admission officer make her an “expert” on paper, it’s her day-to-day interaction with adolescents and young adults that mean the most to her and her clients. She sees her own struggle in the young people she works with. and has dedicated her life to helping them align who they are, what they believe, and what they do. Meredith is action-oriented, and playful - you’ll work hard, but there’ll be plenty of joy and humor along the way! Her particular areas of interest and expertise are developmental transitions, stress and anxiety management, organization and executive functioning, positive parenting communication strategies, and mentoring students and young professionals of color.
Alexandra Simmons
With a decade spent as a teacher, mentor, and administrator, Alexandra has worked with hundreds of teenagers on what it takes to be grounded, successful, and introspective young adults. As a Dean of Student Life at University High School and former 9th Grade Dean and teacher at the Branson School, Alexandra has worked closely with students, parents, and faculty/staff to ensure the rollercoaster years of high school are guided by partnership, process, care, and a lot of laughter. Often called the "teenage whisperer," Alexandra finds immense joy in helping kids (and their families) through it all: mental/emotional challenges, parent coaching, social challenges, navigating change, and executive functioning and organizational skills.
Kathryn Payne-Gray
Kathryn is passionate about coaching students to help them understand their unique learning profile and build self-awareness. Over the last 20 years, she has become an expert in learning diversity. She has Masters Degrees in Special Education and in Educational Administration from Santa Clara University, teaching credentials in early childhood special education, in mild/moderate learning, and in administration. Kathryn’s teaching path has evolved from working with toddlers with severe disabilities, to working in Palo Alto Unified School District, with students with mild reading disabilities, to serving as the Director of Academic Support at the Menlo School, where she became a member of CAST and obtained a certificate in Universal Design for Learning. Kathryn currently serves as the Director of the Schwab Learning Center at Stanford.
ANDREA PIEN
Andrea believes that all people deserve to flourish, and has spent her professional career helping young people to do so. She has worked in highly selective college admissions, as well as college counseling and advising in independent schools in California and Pennsylvania. In her free time, she organizes young people with class privilege to become transformative leaders in progressive movements. As the oldest daughter of immigrant parents, Andrea is particularly sensitive to those who feel as though they are “in between” cultures and social identities. Andrea has a Masters in Education from Stanford University. She is also on the Board of Directors for the Bread and Roses Community Fund, the leading funder of grassroots organizing for racial, social, and economic justice in the Philadelphia region.
Louise Grotenhuis
Louise spent too many years being asked - and feeling anxious that she couldn’t answer: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Teens’ lives are happening now. If together we focus deeply on and explore the now, rather than the when, we will evolve into our grown-up selves in the right time, in the right space, with the right answers. Louise has been a teacher and administrator in traditional public, charter public and independent schools for 28 years. She earned an EdD in Educational Leadership from Mills College, a Masters in Curriculum Development from Harvard and a BA in Religion and Philosophy from Stanford. Louise believes strongly in what the Quaker tradition teaches us about deep listening and in what the Jewish tradition of Chavrusa teaches us about the fellowship of study.
“Saying ‘thank you’ doesn’t even begin to cover how grateful I am for you this year. Not only were you a coach to me, but also a teacher, a supervisor, and a friend.”
— J.K., age 17
We’re in this together.
Our team takes a holistic approach to working with teens and their families. We serve as a parenting partner, a task manager, an accountability partner, and so much more.