Dr. Ilana Nankin, Ph.D.

Dr. Ilana Nankin — Founder and Co-CEO of Breathe for Change — is an award-winning entrepreneur, teacher educator, and former public school teacher. Ilana earned degrees in psychology and education from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her dissertation revealed the critical connection between educator well-being and student learning, and the transformative impact of wellness and social-emotional learning on classroom communities.

Inspired by her research, she founded Breathe for Change — a movement dedicated to bringing wellness, inspiration, and community to every educator and student in the world. As one of the lead professors of this Human Intelligence course, Ilana weaves her expertise in embodied awareness, social-emotional learning, and systemic well-being throughout the curriculum. Her leadership and vision ground the course’s theory of change: empowering educators to transform themselves, transform their teaching, and ultimately transform the way students learn. Ilana lives in San Francisco, and is also the proud mother of two precious daughters, Aliya and Zoe, and applies everything she knows from being a pre-k teacher to her role as a parent.

B.A. UC Berkeley

Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, Madison