Dr. Cathy R. Owens-Oliver is the CEO of Educational Effectiveness Group and the founder of Girls Got LIFE, Inc. She started teaching at three years old on a small stage, the coffee table of the living room, with her toys and stuffed animals all lined up on the sofa for deep learning. From the classroom to the boardroom, she has traveled the U.S. and Canada providing expertise in teacher preparation, school improvement, and cultural responsiveness. Her ability to teach and lead others how to elevate their voices, has expanded from traditional classrooms virtual spaces and living rooms everywhere that people are hungry for change in their lives and communities. Her platform includes women’s empowerment, leadership coaching, teaching thinking, and showing her audiences how to discover and advance without abandoning their true lifework! Her stirring candor and powerful personal stories have helped hundreds of thousands in their search for clarity, self-worth, and wholeness. She has presented at many national conferences and written for leading education journals, magazines, and textbooks. Despite her travel schedule she makes time to teach college students. Proudly, a small-town girl from NC, she enjoys gardening, writing, golfing with her husband Sidney, and mentoring millennials.