About Amy Ellis.
Amy is fully committed to use her gifts to help raise the consciousness of this world.   

Amy has worked in the Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) system for over 16 years as a coach, teacher and a trainer.  Her early work in the schools involved teaching core subjects to students in alcohol treatment facilities and juvenile justice programs.  Amy's passion for reaching out to youth and families experiencing hardships in life led her to working in drug, alcohol, and violence prevention & intervention services.  In 2000, she began working as an OCPS Prevention Specialist in West Orange County, and was asked in 2003 to join the Student Assistance and Family Empowerment (SAFE) team at the OCPS District Office.   Amy worked as a District SAFE Coordinator until the position's federal elimination in 2010.  During these years, she developed district-wide prevention programs and campaigns, trained and coached administrators, teachers, students & parents, gave support to school-based SAFE programs, and coordinated crisis team efforts in the schools. 

Amy's current role with OCPS is an Intervention Specialist at Evans High School where she works with juvenile offenders, supports haitian-creole families, and assists efforts to forward the first OCPS Community School project planned for Evans High School.

Amy is a skilled Certified Coach Practictioner who coaches teens and adults.  She is passionate about helping others clarify their personal desires, change beliefs that no longer serve them, remove barriers that keep them from living their fullest potential, and supporting participants as they take action to create lives they love.  Creating a coaching environment where change happens is a gift of Amy's; she has witnessed teens connect with their parents and take responsibility for their lives in ways not seen before.  Participants often come alive with hopes and dreams as they connect to the real possibilities available to them.

See LIFE COACHING for more about Amy's coaching.

Background. 
Coaching individuals in ways that help them create positive life circumstances and closer relationships with themselves and others began early in Amy’s career.  Working first with adolescents in lock-down facilities, she coached youth in ways that allowed them to know their worth and take interest in taking action toward a positive future.  

For years, Amy has coached teachers in the art of facilitating effective "classroom meetings," a process by which classrooms become working communities through safe and open dialogues; teachers and students celebrate individual and group accomplishments, gain the support of and brainstorm with others to solve problems, and take personal and collective responsibility in creating classroom environments that work for all.    Taking this process to the community, Amy also coaches "family meetings" to parents who want to learn to facilitate open family dialogues, spend less time on discipline, and create shared responsibility with more commitment within the home.  Cooperative discipline techniques are shared throughout coaching sessions. 

Commitment. 
Amy is committed to on-going sharpening and improvement of her coaching and attending skills; she regularly participates in graduate course work, individual counseling & coaching sessions, groups, workshops & seminars, and assists throughout the year for Personal Power and Prosperity, a 30-hour personal growth workshop.

 
Amy is a pianist, composer, and songwriter.  She wrote her first piano pieces at age 6, and has since written hundreds of songs and piano works.  Originally studying classical piano and theory through her primary years, she went on to study music therapy, jazz and commercial piano & composition at Florida State University.  She has performed, composed, and recorded music for vocal artists, jazz programs, relaxation & inspirational settings, individuals being honored, and film, video, & radio projects.   Her music is published world-wide, her music scores have been honored nationally, she has recorded 3 CDs, and has published 1 songbook.

See MUSIC for recorded samples and Amy's performing and composing availability.