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Robert “Bob” Aucone is a civics education curriculum designer who taught more than 6,000 high school students and mentored over 60 teachers during his 32-year teaching career. Since the 1990s, Bob’s passion has been to bring dynamic online learning into traditional classrooms nationwide.
Bob created Chief Justice, the first of three FFD Forums, in 1991 while teaching at Novato High School (NHS) in California. The program was adopted by Army JROTC in 2002, and has been used annually ever since in approximately 1,700 high schools, reaching an estimated 5 million students.
While at NHS, Bob also served 26 years as Chair of the Technology Department and was honored as Teacher of the Year in 1997. An integral part of Novato Unified School District’s (NUSD) 5-year project, “Teaching Technology Across the Curriculum,” and its “A+ for Kids” $7.5 million project,” Bob built computer labs and brought whiteboard technology into classrooms. As a Mentor Teacher for NUSD, he also led workshops to instruct teachers on how to learn and apply technology across the high school curriculum. In 2001, Bob was awarded the national Pitirim Sorokin Award for Exceptional Leadership.
A native of Beverly, MA, Bob received his BS in Education from Salem State University, with post-graduate studies at Sonoma State University and Dominican University. He divides his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Shreveport, LA.
Evangeline Welch brings more than three decades of professional communications experience to FFD, with a focus on mission-driven organizations. A self-employed communication consultant since 1988, she co-founded Intuitive Leaps Creative with Jo Anne Smith in 2003, and served as marketing director for The Narrative Enneagram from 2005-2020.
She began her career as a newspaper reporter, and served as the editor and art director of San Francisco Business magazine, Shreveport magazine and Coho-US, a national magazine of the Cohousing Association of the United States. Her clients have included Apple, Hitachi, Levi Strauss, Microsoft, Pepsi, Visa, Esalen Institute, International Association of Business Communicators and the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association.
Evangeline is passionate about meaningful collaboration, powerful presence and authentic self-expression. In 1997, Evangeline founded a transformational art process that evokes deep play called Paint Dancing. She presents workshops on the Enneagram, creativity, expressive arts and intuitive body wisdom. She is a Certified Relational Presence Facilitator and Speaking Circles® Facilitator. She works online and in Shreveport, LA.
Logan Greenhaw is co-founder of Trail Mix Creative, a full-service website design and development agency. Logan loves all things related to technology, code, analytics and strategy. While he currently is in grad school studying religion and philosophy, he commits his time to learning the latest trends in technology. He is the geek behind the computer that makes the buttons click and the websites work, and has knowledge and experience working with WordPress.
Logan also loves the outdoors and organizations that help protect the environment. He is passionate about storytelling and helping others tell their own story in a unique way.
Jason Foster is a Music Composer, Video Producer and UX designer who cares deeply about connecting with others and their stories. A moment with him will most likely lead to conversations about passions, dreams and life goals.
You can find Jason anywhere in the world working with a variety of different artists, record labels, for-profit and non-profit organizations. His work takes him on stages performing in front of hundreds of thousands of people, and performing for millions of viewers for TV shows like Late Night, Jimmy Kimmel, Saturday Night Live, Ellen Degeneres, the Tonight Show, and many others.
Jason has led projects and worked on teams to produce albums, concerts and live filmed recordings. He spends a lot of time behind the scenes as a consultant helping artists and organizations reach their highest potential. Connect with him at JasonPlaysMusic.com.
Jo Anne Smith started Public Presence Consulting more than 30 years ago to help individuals and nonprofits expand their public presence online, in person and in print. In 2003, she and Evangeline Welch co-founded Intuitive Leaps Creative to enjoy the pleasure and practical benefits of working together.
Jo Anne also spent five years as associate producer on award-winning educational videos and multimedia projects for such clients as Addison-Wesley Publishing and the National Science Foundation. She brings extensive expertise and experience designing websites and also provides content editing for individuals and organizations, a skill she developed as a long-time freelancer for McGraw-Hill Publishing.
An accomplished speaker, storyteller and Certified Speaking Circles® Facilitator, Jo Anne has facilitated popular public speaking and personal storytelling workshops, and produced and directed storytelling showcases, seminars and other events. Her professional experience also includes serving as the executive director of Speaking Circles International, a grief and suicide prevention counselor, and meditation teacher.
Jo Anne works in the San Francisco Bay Area and the ethers of the Internet.
Gene Barnes has served in a variety of roles supporting youth development throughout his life. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area before fulfilling his dream of attending UCLA as a member of the UCLA Men’s Basketball Team. While playing for the UCLA Bruins, Gene held basketball and skills development camps and clinics for youth.
After studying History and Social Welfare at UCLA, Gene started a mentoring business offering academic tutoring, athletic training and life counseling for students of all ages, from K-12 to college. He later worked as Educational Program Director at YearUp, a nonprofit that provides underserved youth with the tools, skills and resources to enter the workforce. He also served as Head Varsity Basketball Coach at The Branson School in Ross, CA.
Gene joined the technology industry as Director of Business Development for Mass Impact Technology, a San Francisco-based tech business accelerator providing solutions for start-ups and small businesses, and co-founded Light and Bridge, a data science-driven marketing company.
In 2015, Gene founded the Ideal Future Foundation (IFF) with the mission of providing mentorship for students to foster habits that will maximize the likelihood of success in following their passion and to provide motivation and inspiration where it is needed. Gene values people and relationships above all, and hopes to leave the world better than he found it.