"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently."
The Team
THE TEAM
The Bold Academy team brings a range of experiences from Apple, TED, NBC, United Nations Foundation, iContact, Seth Godin, StartingBloc, Fast Company, and a number of entrepreneurial ventures. We’re committed to giving our students an unprecedented experience.
Amber Rae & Nathaniel Koloc | Creators
Amber is a motivational force of nature, hell-bent on cultivating a world where human potential is not governed by what we’re told we can and cannot do, but rather by our highest intentions and inner gifts. She’s obsessed with helping people live the lives they are meant to live, and designs her projects accordingly. In the last two years, Amber launched the Domino Project with Seth Godin, turned insomnia into a global movement via Night Owls, and helped hundreds of people give their dreams direction, many of which were through The Passion Experiment. She’s been seen in The New York Times, Fast Company, Inc., Forbes, The Huffington Post, BBC, and ABC World News.
Amber is building The Bold Academy to give people the perspective and skills needed to claim the lives they know they’re meant to live.
Nathaniel has spent the last five years trying to understand why it is so difficult for talented young people to find fulfilling work. The journey took him through East Africa, South America, and Europe, as well as the worlds of social impact and sustainability consulting. Armed with those experiences, Nathaniel co-founded ReWork, a talent agency for sharp young professionals and college grads that refuse to settle for work that doesn’t inspire them. Nathaniel is an Unreasonable fellow, a StartingBloc fellow, and holds a Masters in Strategic Leadership toward Sustainability.
Nathaniel is building the The Bold Academy because the world is ready for it.
Dana Pearlman | Academy Director
Dana has a deep expertise in creating powerful conversations and eliciting people’s best intentions. Her work with facilitation and authentic leadership led to her co-founding The Lotus, a leadership consultancy focused on cultivating a just, resilient, and thriving world. Dana holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology and a Masters in Strategic Leadership toward Sustainability.
Dana is coordinating the development of The Bold Academy’s immersion curriculum and will be the primary host.
Ryan Allis | Entrepreneur-in-Residence
Ryan believes you can achieve anything you set your mind to. He was the co-founder and CEO of iContact until it was acquired in February 2012 by Vocus for $169M. He’s passionate about using technology and entrepreneurship as tools to change the world. He’s an angel investor in companies in the U.S. and East Africa via the HumanityFund, the author of the book Zero to One Million, and Chairman of the non-profit Nourish.org.
Ryan is serving as our Entrepreneur-in-Residence because he lives for inspiring others to reach their full potential so that together, we create positive change in the world.
Antonio Neves | Performance Specialist
Antonio comes from the world of media and communications, with 10 years of experience in broadcast journalism including roles with NBC, E!, BET Networks, and Mediabistro, among others. He founded THINQACTION, which specializes in working with our society’s most underappreciated asset: the young professional who is hungry and ready to reach their full potential. Antonio holds a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University, and sits on the advisory board of StudentMentor.org.
Antonio is helping create The Bold Academy’s curriculum, and will be on-site to support attendees this summer in Boulder.
Cloe Shasha | Community Designer
Cloe has passion and talent for bringing people together. She has experience in logo and web design, journalism, event planning, and cognitive psychology research. Cloe loves interviewing people and recently launched the College Course Quality Project to document the best qualities of learning experiences. She founded and organized TEDxMiddlebury in 2010, and now works for TED on a variety of TEDx initiatives.
Cloe is helping with The Bold Academy’s program design and communications, and will facilitate and document experiences on-site.
Jamie Seiffer | Logistics Manager
Jamie loves making lists, rhyming, and events that run smoothly. He has a passion for the real world and knows that we had faces before we had Facebook. He has empowered college students to become social entrepreneurs with FeelGood, helped neighbors connect and build community at Front Porch Forum, and he is an active member of the CouchSurfing community. In his free time he likes to shred the gnar in the backcountry and ride his bicycle.
Jamie is coordinating logistics because no one wants to hear “actually, that event happened 3 hours ago.”
Rob Norback | User Experience Manager
Rob started the Cornell FreeRice Initiative in college. He loved the idea of being able to help people in poverty while playing a game online. After college, he sought to help end the cycle of poverty by joining Teach for America. While teaching, he found that his students learned physics best through meaningful work and picked up a Masters in Education. His next big endeavor is to start his own business that helps fight poverty in the developing world. And because he understands that entrepreneurship can get lonely, he invented MBA with Friends to get his business education with the best people imaginable - his friends.
Hoping to help others find meaningful work, Rob is currently working to create the most kick-ass curriculum possible for the Bold Academy.
Still have Questions?
Email Amber (me@heyamberrae.com) + Nathaniel (natkoloc@gmail.com).
