…Researched and contributed by Solomon Thomas.
Brain Power Wellness is a holistic, school-based wellness organization that aims to create healthy, happy, and focused school environments.
The organization’s mission is to transform school culture through various self-development practices, mindfulness, community building, team building, retreats, social-emotional wellness practices, holistic wellness, and brain training for teachers, students, parents, and administrators.
Brain Power Wellness believes in regularly reviewing its curriculum to ensure that it provides the optimum tools required to create fulfilling and effective environments.
The organization has expanded its reach to include corporate groups, where they receive powerful tools for creating focused, inspiring, and sustainable work environments.
Interview with Maria Claudia Kondrat Libreros and Evi Zaimi
In this interview, Maria Claudia Kondrat Libreros and Evi Zaimi, two staff members of Brain Power Wellness, discuss the organization’s ongoing expansion.
Maria Claudia is the lead instructor and field coordinator for BPW’s programs in Miami, FL, while Evi is the lead instructor and field coordinator for the programs in Los Angeles.
Maria Claudia joined Brain Power Wellness nearly four years ago after working as a classroom teacher at an elementary school in Miami for thirteen years.
Through her interest in yoga and meditation, she discovered BPW and decided to take their training in New York.
On the last day of the training, Maria envisioned integrating what she had learned into her community and wished to bring BPW to Miami.
Dave Beal, the CEO of BPW, agreed, and Maria became the field coordinator and head of staff development for BPW in Miami.
Evi started working with BPW almost eight years ago as an instructor and later became an assistant manager in their first office space in New York City.
After moving to Los Angeles two years ago, Evi reached out to Dave Beal to expand BPW to Los Angeles.
The company had already created connections that opened the door for BPW to expand in Los Angeles.
Evi is now the field coordinator and lead instructor for Brain Power Wellness in the Los Angeles area, where they have partnered with twenty-one schools.
Expanding Brain Power Wellness
Maria Claudia and Evi discussed the ways in which they see Brain Power Wellness expanding.
Maria Claudia believes that they are continually expanding their reach into all the schools in Miami-Dade County.
Evi’s vision is to expand Brain Power Wellness and partnership to all public schools in the Los Angeles area, including the L.A.
Unified schools.
Brain Power Wellness will soon be expanding its programming to a primarily online model.
Maria Claudia explains that the expansion is essential because they have a big vision, and limiting themselves to their current in-person market won’t allow them to reach the number of children and school communities they want to impact.
Evi confirms that the online expansion project won’t affect LA’s in-person model, and the goal for LA is to keep the model they currently have and focus on impacting school culture by incorporating social-emotional learning (SEL) tools and strategies.
Ensuring Consistency in Quality of Brain Power Wellness Retreats
Maria Claudia and Evi discussed how Brain Power Wellness ensures that the quality of its retreats is consistent.
Maria Claudia explains that they are willing to be creative and make it work because they know the essence, the intention, and where they want to take the retreats and what they want participants to experience.
For example, they did the Certified Teacher Leader retreat online in Miami, which was a success.
Evi adds that they ensure consistency in the quality of their Brain Power retreats through ongoing reinforcement sessions.
Success Stories of Brain Power Wellness’ Expansion
Maria Claudia and Evi shared specific success stories of Brain Power Wellness’ expansion.
Maria Claudia and Dave Beal started the Miami expansion right before the pandemic.