The Team
Learn from me… TRUST
Ridgely Chapman is the President/CEO and founder of Global Minds United. She earned a BA in Literature and Psychology from The George Washington University, her MSC in Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology and Psychotherapy from University College London and a Mediation/Conflict Resolution certification from Northwestern University. At the University of California, Berkeley, she researched human judgement and decision making. Ridgely completed training at the United States Institute of Peace and was a guest speaker on Innovations in Peacebuilding at the Praxis Conference in Washington, D.C. She is currently working with the Harvard Graduate School of Education to create and spread global education to students and teachers in the United States and around the world. Ridgely enjoys public speaking at conferences and teaching conflict resolution and peacebuilding. She was the Executive Director of the nonprofit and NGO, Solace for the Children, whose mission was building peace on a foundation of health. She has been a guest speaker on refugees at Lake Norman Charter Middle School, discussed women’s rights in war-torn countries at LNC High School, and presented on conflict resolution at Davidson College. At Lake Norman Charter School, Ridgely serves on the Board of Education and as Chair of the Global Diversity & Inclusion Committee across all grade levels K-12. Ridgely currently lives in Davidson, North Carolina, with her husband, Richard, and their three daughters.
Email at rchapman@globalmindsunited.org
Learn from me… WE ARE ALL HUMAN
Tara Jaketic is a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner. Change management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip, and support individuals to successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes. I help those seeking to make a change learn how to manage and engage the people side of change. So often, only the tasks of a project are considered. By focusing on both the people and the task at the same time we are able to minimize risk and ensure the desired change is sustainable. I’m passionate about this piece of change because the people involved and impacted really do make a difference.
Learn from me… HOPE
Interns are critical members of the GMU team. They temporarily support our organization through providing research, gathering statistics and designing surveys. GMU supports interns who want follow their passion, gain work experience, and get an overall feel for the global education industry.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Learn from me… PASSION
Jeremy White was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Tennessee, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, and North Carolina. He has been involved with children and education for more than 15 years, having started teaching at a daycare when he was 18 years old. Jeremy would go on to graduate from Elon University with a Journalism degree in 2008. He moved to Japan, where he taught English to students ranging from 2 to 60 years old. He taught at nine schools in the five years that he lived in Japan. After returning to the United States in 2014, he obtained a master’s degree in Elementary Education and has been teaching kindergarten for five years. Jeremy currently teaches at West Lake Preparatory Academy, where he was named Teacher of the Year. This is the second time receiving the award as he was named Teacher of the Year for the 2017-2018 school year at Brisbane Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jeremy is the founder of L.I.F.T. Tutoring.
Learn from me… GLOBAL EDUCATION
Sunia Young graduated from Davidson College in 2020, where she was a Bonner Scholar and Presidential Scholar. While majoring in Psychology and minoring in Arab Studies, Sunia did psychological research on student wellbeing and distress, and behavioral pharmacology research. She is also fluent in Persian and was a Persian tutor at Davidson’s Center for Teaching and Learning. She has worked for Solace for the Children, the Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project (A/PI DVRP), and the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program. Currently, she is a remote contact tracer for the University of Utah and is planning to attend graduate school for public health in the near future. Sunia briefly lived in Stockholm, Sweden, and Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where she studied Persian through the U.S. Department of State. She loves to travel and is hoping to do some more once the pandemic is over.
