Programs & Professional Development

Aleshia Fleming

Aleshia Fleming has dedicated herself to educating students in Texas for 24 years. She is currently a school counselor at Hillsboro Intermediate School in Hillsboro, Texas.

Aleshia became a Choose Love Ambassador for the state of Texas in 2020 and has spread the message of Choosing Love with many educators and families. She has had the opportunity to lead the movement in her own district since 2018. Aleshia has presented throughout the state of Texas to educators and administrators sharing the impact Choose Love can make in schools, communities, and homes. She is also a facilitator for the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation and hopes to help spread Jesse’s message of Nurturing, Healing, Love.

Shae Owens

Shae Owens spent 30 years serving as a public school educator in Texas, first as an elementary teacher and later as an elementary school counselor. During the final seven years of her counseling career, she had the privilege of leading the schoolwide implementation of Choose Love for Schools at Hillsboro Elementary, serving more than 600 students in PreK through third grade.

That experience deepened Shae’s belief in the transformative power of character and social-emotional development—not only for students, but for entire school communities. As a Choose Love Ambassador, she expanded that work beyond her own campus, sharing the Choose Love message with school counselors, educators, and administrators through presentations at Regional Education Service Centers and state-wide conferences.

When Shae retired from public education in 2025, she knew she wasn’t ready to step away from the work she loved. She joined the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement team as a School Support Partner, where she now has the joy of connecting with educators across the country and walking alongside them on their own Choose Love journeys.

Drawing from three decades in schools and her own experience bringing Choose Love to life campus-wide, Shae supports educators by sharing practical ideas, answering questions, connecting them with resources, and most importantly, building relationships that remind them that they don’t have to do this vital work alone.

Her passion is helping educators move Choose Love beyond a curriculum and make it a mindset that becomes part of the everyday culture of their classrooms, schools, and communities.

Rick Rood

Rick Rood has been on the front lines of Education for nearly 30 years, working directly with children and front-line staff.  With degrees in Education, Afterschool Care, and Applied Mathematics, Rick is a student of the thought leader movement, distilling lessons from master teachers like Jack Canfield, Tony Robbins, and Brendon Burchard – giving them practical application to education professionals.  Participants have described his workshops as “fascinating” and “life-changing.”

Rick is a classroom teacher, and in the past he has run afterschool programs, taught music, computer programming, and youth leadership workshops.  Rick is a contributor to “Youth Today!” and is the author of “Games Teachers Play Before the Bell Rings”.  Rick is a Certified High Performance Coach^TM and works privately and in groups with education professionals to help them achieve higher levels of performance in their work and personal lives.

Rick is the driving force behind Transforming Teachers, Transforming Education, an organization rooted in the Positive Youth Development philosophy dedicated to training and inspiring youth-serving professionals.  Through Transforming Teachers, Rick has delivered workshops and keynotes to thousands of education professionals, helping teachers transform their “inner game” of teaching to better serve youth, children, and families.

Rick and his team created the Beyond School Time Conference for Out-of-School-Time Professionals in 2018 as a way for California’s OST Professionals to connect, learn, and gather inspiration.