Dr. Jacquelyn Gamino completed her doctoral studies in cognitive neuroscience and has spent more than 20 years developing and honing programs that help young adolescents understand and unlock the hidden potential of their brains. Throughout her life, she has maintained a consistent passion for advocacy to better the lives of children. Through neuroscience, she uncovered existing vulnerabilities in K-12 education where interventions have a unique potential to impact broad social inequalities and individual quality of life. ​ Her quest to improve learning for children across the full spectrums of demographic and socioeconomic diversity has resulted in the creation of instructive curricula that are now in place in classrooms throughout the United States. These novel curricula are noteworthy for utilizing cutting-edge developments in cognitive neuroscience to create useable, adolescent-friendly materials with a rapid onset of consistent, meaningful increases in measurable cognition. Her ability to reverse engineer complex thinking processes allows students to experience and grasp the essence of higher-level cognition using short-acting, minimally disruptive group-based interventions. Dr. Gamino leads a laboratory team of researchers and former educators who share her enthusiasm for nurturing developing minds. Under her guidance, the Adolescent Reasoning Initiative has successfully reached more than 90,000 students. In 2020, her Adolescent Reasoning Initiative team received D CEO Magazine’s Nonprofit Team of the Year Award. ​ Outside of the classroom and laboratory, Jacquelyn is an invited international speaker and has widely published evidence-based practices about maximizing the potential of the adolescent brain. Her workshops provide educators and parents with tools to develop critical thinking in young adolescents, a foundational tenet of leading rich and meaningful lives as adults. Dr. Gamino’s presentations reflect her innate ability to explain complex brain functioning and performance to the general public. Jacquelyn’s research and work have been recognized widely by educational leaders and supported by private foundations and the State of Texas. In just 15 years, she has received over $30,000,000 in grant funding. Although Dr. Gamino’s research has already touched the lives of tens of thousands of students, families, and teachers nationwide, she and her team are enthusiastically continuing to expand the program’s reach.