Board Of Directors

Our Founding Members are experts in their fields and dedicated to revolutionizing education across our planet by equipping and inspiring our youth to lead extraordinary lives and solve our world’s greatest challenges. Our board members are trusted advisors and offer invaluable guidance.

Heidi DeCoux

President & Chairman
of the Board

I’m fired up to create a better world through ingenuity, intuitive solutions, entrepreneurship, education, and outside-of-the-box approaches that allow ALL to live extraordinary lives.

For the past 10+ years, I’ve been a serial entrepreneur, marketing consultant and business strategist. I’ve built four successful businesses and sold three of them. They’re all continuing to thrive under new ownership.

Currently I consult with small businesses that want to achieve “big business” speed and momentum on a small-business budget, and I’m preparing to launch a new SaaS company which will be an effective and affordable recruiting and HR solution for small businesses.

However – my real passion is my non-profit work here at Illuminated Life School.

Illuminated Life School is going to change the world, and I would love for you to join us in that mission.

Azul Terronez

Vice President
of the Board

Azul Terronez is a national and international leader in project based learning, educational entrepreneurship, and innovative learning practices.

He started his teaching career as an ESL/bilingual teacher in inner city Los Angeles where he also started his career as an assistant principal at the middle school in the Hawthorne Independent School District.

He was a grade level principal for a 4000-student high school in Round Rock ISD and served as the leader for the ESL Department and Special Education for the entire campus. He was the principal of Hopewell Middle School, a suburban school in Round Rock, Texas and moved the school from near Low-performing to “Recognized.”

As the Associate Program Officer for the Texas High School Project for the Communities of Texas Foundation, Azul was responsible for the guidance of new STEM academies in the state.

He was a consultant at New Tech High where he helped schools implement the New Tech High model in their districts. He sits on the advisory board for Nextlesson.com, an online platform to support PBL and Common Core curriculum.

At High Tech High, a public Charter School System in San Diego, California, Azul served many roles, Regional Director, Humanities teacher, Middle School Director and Adjunct Faculty of the Graduate School of Education. He coached schools in Canada, India, Spain, Chile, Australia and China through the Leading Schools Program at HTH.

He’s the author of the best-selling book The Art of Apprenticeship: How to Hack Your Way into Any Industry, Land a Kick-Ass Mentor and Make a Killing Doing What You Love.

He is also the Founder of The Authors Writing Academy, an online community for writers. His recent TEDx talk, “What Makes a Good Teacher Great,” was well received and is the topic of his next book.

When he is not writing or teaching he is participating in Slam Storytelling, connecting with like-minded entrepreneurs and traveling the world with his partner, Steve, and two teenage children.

Tracy Myers

Vice President &
Secretary of the Board

I am on a journey as a multiracial person to find my “authentic” self. My whole life I have been asked, “What are you?” I am someone who enjoys a good macaroni and cheese, long talks with friends at a coffee shop, and discovering new places with my family. This is not what people are asking me. They want to place me in a “box,” identifying my race. Through years of exploring the impacts of racism on my life, I am claiming my identity through knowing my Indigenous, Filipina, & White ancestry and committing to raising my racial consciousness.

Our current educational system creates limitations, demands conformity, and stifles the potential of our children, much of this is a result of institutionalized racism. As a woman of color, my K-12 experience only amplified my inability to see myself as a leader or recognize my gifts. This loss of self-connection aided in the loss of my culture and identity. My purpose is to cultivate racial equity leaders so that children, especially children of color, can thrive as their authentic selves in schools and discover their fullest potential.

My career began in the world of social work. Through non-profit, government, and education, I have worked to address the social ills of America through serving communities experiencing homelessness, poverty, abuse, mental illness, and chemical dependency. As I realized more efforts were needed to prevent these social injustices, I turned to the educational system to work with our emerging young leaders.

My accomplishments include leading transformative racial equity workshops for adults and students, developing innovative programming to increase academic participation for students experiencing homelessness, creation of regional network of supports for students in foster care, developing culturally relevant curriculum, and consulting school leaders in being anti-racist schools.

I am a mother, sister, and friend, dedicated to serving the community and transforming the world for the greater good. Will you join us in creating a new foundation of education built for our children to live extraordinary lives?

Jessica Heaton

Vice President &
Treasurer of the Board

Racial Equity Warrior. Education Innovator. Global Citizen.

I am someone who believes and lives Gandhi’s maxim, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I am committed to transforming the world to be more socially just, so that the next generation grows up in a world where each person can bring their greatest strengths to bear in the community, for the benefit of all humankind.

This mindset has propelled my work as a school administrator, international non-profit founder and board member for organizations serving marginalized communities. Whether I’m serving in an educational, non-profit or corporate organization, I am passionate about utilizing my great strengths as an innovator, leader, team-developer, resource manager and certified racial equity practitioner to maximize opportunity, diversity, inclusion and achievement.

Some notable accomplishments in my career thus far: I have co-led a team to research and draft a highly impactful district equity policy, led targeted student recruitment efforts which successfully resulted in greater racial diversity, and designed and implemented professional development programs in equity and inclusion practices increasing students’ sense of belonging.