THE U4U TEAM
Founder & CEO::
Ila Panik Marchetta has 20 yrs of experience innovating, developing, launching and growing organizations. She developed and launched a trial of U4U in the UK to test proof of concept, positively influencing 600+ teen girls within the first 6 months of trial. She has built & grown companies in the retail, financial services and education sectors.
Alongside her personal entrepreneurial experiences, she has supported the start-up of over 10 small size organizations and consulted more than 15 corporations and public organizations in the United Kingdom and United States.
Ila’s greatest motivation is to create positive change in the world. In a personal exercise to decide direction, she determined that the greatest opportunity for such change would come through creating a stronger, healthier & better prepared foundation in future generations, particularly young ladies. She applied all of her business & academic experience to shape U4U as a scalable solution to meet the needs of our society.
Ila was a professional dancer for over 10 years, technically trained in ballet and has taught teens in studios and companies at all levels. She has two school age daughters, is an active volunteer in their schools and is a Girl Scouts troop leader. Academically she has degrees in business, marketing and an MBA from London Business School.
Environment ::
Yvette Hernandez is an inspiration to the U4U team as our environmental advisor. She holds a MS in wildlife biology, and is a registered veterinary technician and certified wildlife rehabilitator. She has worked across multiple avenues of environmental education, advocacy & research including 10+ years as a wildlife biologist for USGS National Wildlife Health Center and UC Davis Wildlife Health Center. From leading a team to clean oiled wildlife after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon BP Oil Spill to tracking and monitoring crows for West nile virus and lead levels, Yvette not only has a deep understanding of the complexities and needs of our environments, but also how to motivate and direct effective environmental engagement.
Yvette is a member of the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association, co-founder of the Bay Area Tracking Club, co-leads a girl scout troop, and serves on the board for her city’s Girls Softball league. She has two daughters and enjoys backpacking and camping with her family. She is passionate about educating young people about embracing nature and believes that we can all help support an environment that is healthy for both wildlife and ourselves.
Yvette supports U4Us goal to help every teen girl receive the benefits of connecting with nature as well as deliver the benefits to our globe of another lifelong environmental advocate.
Nutrition ::
Bracha Kopstick, Registered dietitian specializing in adolescent nutrition and food freedom for teens is a guiding specialist for U4U.
Adolescence is naturally a time for increased growth, and often a time of decreased self-confidence. In Bracha’s role as dietitian, she helps adolescents to feel good in their body and enjoy what they eat, without dieting, guilt, or shame. Bracha manages confusion around feeding adolescents with education around inaccurate information, and a process of building trust with food and body using a weight neutral approach. By addressing eating problems at this stage of growth, adolescents can grow and mature into healthy adults with interests that go beyond what they eat or how they look.
U4U is also pleased to share that Bracha is available to work one- on-one with teen girls that may be experiencing difficulties around eating such as picky eating, restrictive eating, dieting ideation or other concerns.
Services
Mindfulness, emotional intelligence & compassion ::
Amaris Vicari, Esq. has been practicing mindfulness for over 25 years. She has experience teaching in many geographies including Africa, Asia, South America, Europe, and the U.S. She has reached thousands directly through her mindfulness and emotional intelligence sessions. Her delivery focuses on building resilience day-to-day, stress management techniques, higher performance, under stress, and other skills critical to mental and emotional well-being in hostile environments. (& we all know that middle school / high school can be hostile!).
Amaris is a Certified Ambassador of Applied Compassion from Stanford’s CCARE and Applied Compassion Academy, a certified teacher of the “Search Inside Yourself” mindfulness program born at Google, she has completed SIYLI.org’s “Engage” training to facilitate and create mindfulness program & completed studies at Mindfulness Training Institute.
Amaris has 3 daughters and is active in working across multiple schools to deliver support to young people. She is passionate about all of the 4 pillars of U4U, and keen to support U4Us teen girls with her wealth of tools & technique.
Youth Board of Advisors ::
Oberlin, Maria Antonia (Brazil), Iman, Lucia, Ghost
U4U has an outstanding team of youth advisors. These young ladies are passionate about creating a better future for our world and leading by example. They are keen to utilize their intelligence, ambition & drive to help U4U deliver on its mission.
Now Accepting applications. Request info through the contact page.
Social Media Marketing ::
Jennifer Fisher holds a BS Media & Communications Studies. Jennifer (Jenni) is passionate about U4U and ways to engage young ladies to make choices which help them become both healthier & happier. She is an enthusiastic technician that is keen to try, grow, learn & challenge tools and techniques within the social media space in hopes of connecting & building a better future.
Design & Creative ::
Hannah (Lynde) Wittman is the founder & ceo of HL Design. She brings 20+ years of experience bringing ideas and brands to life. She holds degrees in English from Hobart and William Smith College as well as Communicative Arts from University of the Arts London.
Hannah is passionate about U4U’s mission to help teen girls get through their challenges and achieve their dreams. She is dedicated to helping the U4U team utilize design and creative approach to effectively engage & appeal to teen girls.
User Experience Guide ::
Sunny Medwed