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Role-Specific Expertise
Teachers learn to teach. Coaches learn to coach. Counselors learn to counsel. Mentors learn to mentor.
A new approach to supporting young people
Strengthening the Ecosystem Supporting Every Young Person
Young people experience their lives as one interconnected journey, but the adults supporting them are often prepared to work independently.
CAPES Academy prepares professionals to strengthen support ecosystems through the CAPES Integrated Support Framework, helping schools, families, and community organizations work together more intentionally.
Young people don't need to be redesigned. The systems that support them do.
The Problem
Today's support systems weren't designed to work together.
Young people move between home, school, friendships, extracurricular activities, healthcare, work, and their communities. Yet the adults supporting them often operate from different perspectives, use different frameworks, and communicate inconsistently.
Teachers, parents, counselors, coaches, mentors, after-school staff, and healthcare providers may each bring valuable expertise, but they are rarely prepared to contribute to one coordinated support ecosystem.
The result is not a lack of caring. It is a lack of alignment.
CAPES Academy exists to help bridge that gap.
A New Approach
Preparing the adults who support young people to work together
Most professional preparation focuses on a single role. CAPES strengthens the connections between those roles.
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Ecosystem-Specific Preparation
CAPES helps professionals understand how their work connects with the broader ecosystem supporting each young person.
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Greater Alignment
Adults use a shared framework to recognize strengths, aspirations, needs, and circumstances while coordinating their contributions more intentionally.
The Solution
The CAPES Integrated Support Framework
The CAPES Integrated Support Framework provides a shared approach for strengthening the ecosystem supporting each young person.
It helps adults recognize each person's unique strengths, aspirations, needs, and circumstances while contributing to a more coordinated approach to support.
CAPES integrates three complementary practices:
Coaching strengthens self-awareness, self-management, and the ability to move toward meaningful goals.
Mentoring strengthens relationships, social awareness, encouragement, and connection.
Facilitation strengthens communication, shared decision-making, and collaboration across the support ecosystem.
CAPES does not replace existing professions. It strengthens the connections between them.
Professional Certification
Become a CAPES Individual Practitioner
CAPES certification prepares people to use coaching, mentoring, and facilitation to help strengthen the ecosystems supporting young people.
Designed for professionals and community leaders
- PreK–12 educators
- School counselors and social workers
- Coaches and consultants
- Youth mentors
- After-school and extracurricular staff
- Mental health professionals
- Nonprofit and community leaders
- Parents and caregivers
Preparation that complements your existing expertise
CAPES Individual Practitioners learn to contribute to strengths-based, coordinated support ecosystems while maintaining the boundaries and responsibilities of their existing roles.
The initial certification pathway will combine flexible online learning with applied practice, reflection, live engagement, and opportunities to use the CAPES Integrated Support Framework in real-world settings.
Receive Program UpdatesOur Vision
Building stronger support ecosystems
CAPES Academy's long-term vision is to establish a common framework that helps schools, families, community organizations, and youth-serving professionals work together more intentionally.
We envision a future in which young people are not left to navigate disconnected systems alone. Instead, they are supported by adults who understand their individual roles, recognize how those roles connect, and share a commitment to helping each young person flourish.
Our purpose is not to replace existing professions. It is to strengthen the ecosystem supporting every young person.
Meet the Founder
For more than 25 years, I have worked at the intersection of entrepreneurship, human-centered design, education, accessibility, and student success.
Since 1999, I have founded and led companies spanning human-centered design, branding, consumer products, and creative services. I have also held roles at organizations including Boeing, Microsoft, the University of Washington, Seattle Children's Hospital, and Western Washington University.
Across every venture, organization, and educational setting, I noticed the same pattern: people thrive when the systems around them are intentionally designed to support them.
That realization became deeply personal as I navigated my own learning differences and advocated for my daughter throughout her complex educational journey.
Today, I am aligning my doctoral research in Curriculum Studies at DePaul University with the development of CAPES Academy.
CAPES brings together my experience as a serial entrepreneur, human-centered designer, educator, researcher, accessibility leader, coach, and curriculum developer into one integrated approach to strengthening the support ecosystems that help young people thrive.
Join the CAPES Community
Help build a more aligned future for young people.
Join the waitlist to receive updates about CAPES certification, pilot cohorts, institutional partnerships, and opportunities to participate in the development of the CAPES Integrated Support Framework.