Founding Community

From professional athletes to toddlers Jennifer is a social entrepreneur, international connector and passionate advocate. At BPI she is the visionary and the creative leader. Most recently she partnered in the ideation, creation, execution and successful graduation of over 400 professional athletes and entertainers attaining their Masters in Business Administration. STAR EMBA, a graduate program at the George Washington University School of Business. Subsequently, Mrs. Lythcott established STAR Purpose, and dgdw worldwide, a philanthropic consulting firm founded to empower the world’s philanthropists. And most recently, Mrs. Lythcott was the Director of Partnerships and Business Development at ICON EMBA, a Learning Systems Integrator, most recently launched at University of Miami, designed to transform the lives of professional artists and athletes and revitalize America’s inner cities.

She has a dual Bachelor Degree in Economics and International Relations with a minor in Globalization and Localization from American University and a Masters in Business Administration from Monterey Institute of International Studies. She speaks French, Spanish, Arabic (MSA) and Mandarin Chinese. Jennifer is also a mom to a toddler, Xavier and dog mom to goldendoodle, Jax.

From elite athlete to mom extraordinaire, Maria Feeney is our mom-Friday. At BPI she runs the shop- she makes sure the trains come in and leave on time and that we are all minding our Ps and Qs while doing it (aka she has pockets full of bandaids). Maria is an athlete, advocate, healer, trainer, leader and organizer.

Maria brings a strong background in physical fitness, awareness and therapy. She has played almost every sport and trained people in every profession. Her background in physical therapy and massage make her therapeutic and knowledgeable and if that weren't enough she has been a team captain for Moms in Training. Maria has vast experience with advocacy and supporting and sourcing community resources for those in need. She has worked with housing services, medicaid, disability benefits and patient services. Additionally, she served as the backbone and strategic manager for a prominent global chef and brand. Most recently, Maria is part of Grovehouse - a hospitality company notably Lilia, Misi and MP and founder of Burn X Grovehouse a judgement free, safe space with a circular aspect to mental health & wellness nurturing staff to grow more confident in their physical, emotional, financial education including a charity volunteering aspect of wellness.

Maria has a Bachelors in Arts in Exercise Science/Kinesiology from Longwood University. She is also a mom to 9 year old Biella and twin "Pasta Patrol" toddlers Declan and Conor and Dog- aunt to Louie a lovable Pomeranian.

Elizabeth (Lizzy) Shelden is passionate about early childhood development and education. She is a Registered Behavior Technician, Speech Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist and has applied her vast skills and study to work with children on the autism spectrum, support speech development through hands on programmatic work with Head Start (2017-2019), and directly teaching preschool (2016-2017) in Olympia, WA. Her teaching and curriculum are grounded in a child driven approach to education that considers the individuality of each of her students; she incorporates creative movement, mindfulness, and emotional management working to connect the mind and body for expression and processing of lessons and emotions. Racial justice, gender identity and inclusive family structure are paramount to her curriculum formulation. She actively self educates about racial and economic oppression and her role within these systems of oppression in order to better serve her students and community.

Lizzy has a Bachelors of Science degree in Psychology and minor in Dance from University of Idaho. She currently lives in Brooklyn.

Most recently, Ellen was the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Skip Hop, a brand for baby and kids. Ellen is BPI's master crafter with responsibility for all daily art projects, the creative concepts behind all BPI's artistic programming. She is responsible for the ideation, testing and scaling of all local and global art projects. Ellen is BPI's creative champion developing our curriculum to bring to other toddlers nationwide. Ellen is also a mom to a college student, Spencer and a dog mom to Goldendoodle, Charlie.

Summer brings nearly 20 years of exercise physiology and nutritional expertise to our program as well as rich international experience having worked in Qatar, the UAE, and India. Summer graduated from University of California Davis with a BS in Genetics and studied Spanish language abroad at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Argentina. She holds multiple certifications in fitness training, is a retired professional bodybuilder, certified nutritionist, and the founder and CEO of Soma Nutrition and Soma Fitness.

Summer has extensive experience working with children ages 5 -18 by volunteering with the Compton Jr Posse where she taught inner city youth the foundations of nutrition, hosting nutrition seminars at jr high and high schools throughout Southern California and New York, and mentoring high school athletes. Summer is also a mom to a toddler, Levi and a dog mom to an Italian Greyhound, Iggy.