Nancy Nason Guss

Nancy has dedicated her life to working with children and helping them appreciate our world and all the people in it. A retired educator of 37 years, she was a principal at two education centers, both of which served extremely at-risk youth; an assistant principal at a middle/high school, and a middle school language arts teacher. She is a designer and teacher for Smart Start summer camp, a blended learning experience, that focuses on reviewing and previewing math, science, and English lessons for children entering 4th - 12th grades. She holds a Master of Education degree in educational leadership and a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech communication/English education, both from the University of South Florida, Tampa.

As a school administrator, Nancy has presented to numerous parent and professional groups and created workshops for parents and students, with a concentration on working with at-risk students and their families, including: "Reading with your Children," "Preventing Bullying," "Living Above the Line," and "Success in School." As a teacher, Nancy's lessons always included life lessons of building character, endurance, and love of our world and all people in it.

She and Bernie, her husband of 39 years, live near Tampa, FL and have one adult child. A lot of what Nancy learned was experienced firsthand from her parenting experiences and used these to help other parents whose children struggled through similar challenges within our society. In addition, she learned the need to help children connect with nature, which helped connect with the parents. A walk or hike to a waterfall always resulted in sweet conversations, times of quiet companionship, and love. One must steer the focus from the issue to the now, that safe moment of joy; the issue can wait until all are grounded enough to discuss. Most importantly, she learned that early exposure to nature was the key to keeping her child grounded. Those early and continued lessons enabled her to help other parents because she brought them hope with her story's happy ending.

She finds, celebrates, honors, and recognizes each person and our earth as divine creations and gifts from God, and hopes to bring that deep down contented joy, peace, and love to all by cherishing the many simple blessings and pleasures we enjoy on this planet we all share. Most importantly, she recognizes the need to help our children make these connections, so they always are filled with awe at the miracles of creation and themselves, which will bring hope, joy, peace, and love to their lives forever. When all do this, we are all one in peace and love.

Nancy hosts a bi-weekly blog (http://www.nancynasonguss/blog), website (www.nancynasonguss.com), and author's Facebook page (Nancy Nason Guss, Author). She is on Twitter (@ngussto) and Instagram (@ngussto). You can contact Nancy directly through a link on her website.