Meet our 2022 Keynote: Dr. Drea Letamendi


Restore, Refresh, Reignite! Bringing Resilience, Consciousness, and Compassion to Our Work
November 4, 2022 at the Family Engagement in Higher Education National Conference

Dr. Drea Letamendi (she/her/ella) is a consulting psychologist with degrees from Cornell University, SDSU, and UCSD. Dr. Drea specializes in organizational development, mental health training, and corporate wellness. She is a fellow at the Institute of Coaching at the Harvard School of Medicine affiliate, McLean, and serves as the Director of Resilience at UCLA, where she designs and activates mental health initiatives and prepares leaders with crisis intervention and field response protocols.  As a wellbeing strategist, her passion is fostering curiosity, enthusiasm, and capacity for enhancing work-life health, belongingness, and equanimity among ambitious teams. Dr. Drea is a TEDx speaker and delivered TED sessions on "Resilience and Media During a Pandemic," as part of the special COVID-19 series. She’s consulted with gaming and entertainment media companies such as Riot Games, Warner Bros., Marvel, and Disney+. Dr. Drea has published several articles and chapters about the positive impacts of media storytelling on mental health, and this work has been featured in the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Los Angeles Times. Her latest publication with Springer is titled, The Force Awakens: Mindfulness-Based Therapy Using Star Wars.