executive leadership team
Tessa Zimmerman
Founder, Executive Director
Location: Boulder, Colorado
After growing up with severe anxiety and firsthand experiencing the lack of mental health resources in schools, Tessa (she/her) founded Upstream Education to ensure teachers have the tools to help their students reduce stress. She received a B.S. in Social Entrepreneurship from the Watson Institute at Lynn University. Tessa also holds a 200 hour yoga teacher certificate from Strala Yoga. In 2016, Tessa won the Denver Public Schools Imaginarium Innovation Lab's Design Challenge for her idea to create a program of bite-sized, Tier 1 Mental Health tools for high school students. The following year, her first book, I Am Tessa, was published by One Idea Press. She often speaks on the topics of adolescent mental health, social entrepreneurship, and teacher professional development for organizations including Teach For America, Denver Public Schools, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, and the University of Notre Dame. In 2021, Tessa delivered her first TEDx talk called “The Power of 5 Minutes for Youth Mental Health.” In her spare time, Tessa loves to take The Class and explore Colorado with her fiancé. She lives in Boulder.
Gina Leach
Director of Programs
Location: Traverse City, Michigan
Gina (she/her) has taught high school English for nearly a decade and recently discovered the power of social & emotional learning after embedding Upstream Education’s curriculum into her classroom culture. She now serves as Upstream Education’s Director of Programs and brings a teacher’s perspective to curricular and professional development materials. In her free time, Gina loves to read, cook big family dinners, and get outside with her two sons, and dog.
Brittany Anderson
Program Coordinator
Location: Santa Monica, California
Brittany Simone Anderson (she/her) sits at the intersection of wellness and advocacy. Here, she uses her extensive experience as a wellness educator and yoga therapist with a specialty in cancer care, PTSD and race-based traumatic stress (RBTS) in the forms of therapeutic sound, meditation, therapeutic yoga, and expansive breath techniques to alleviate symptoms associated with disrupted psychological or physiological states. Brittany is the Program Coordinator at Upstream Education, where she uses her passion for trauma-informed wellness education to support the ever evolving Upstream curriculum. Brittany is the co-creator of The Werk Podcast (a safe space to support the decolonization of health, wellness, and spiritual spaces), a devoted dog mom, and an avid reader. In her down time she's most likely with those she loves, dancing, cooking, or traveling.
