Our Purpose & Vision
Founded from action research at our San Francisco lab school, Millennium Institute emerged to address the growing crisis of well-being in education through transformative peer coaching methods. Learn about our mission to advance human potential, meet our experienced team of educators and researchers, and explore our strategic partnerships that are reshaping educational communities nationwide.
Our Story
Millennium Institute was created to address the changing needs of today’s educators and the growing crisis of well-being in education. Born from the action research of Millennium School, our innovation lab in San Francisco, the Institute designs and shares developmental science-based methods of instruction that create thriving educational communities through authentic connection and whole-self integration. Together, Millennium School and Millennium Institute constitute Millennium.org, a 501c3 nonprofit organization reimagining the role of education to better prepare students for flourishing in a global digital society.
In an age of increasing isolation and fragmentation, both within ourselves and with each other, we believe that structured peer coaching offers a powerful antidote — building the skills and worldviews to foster full engagement, healthy relationships, and overall well-being for educators and the communities they serve. Over the last 10 years Millennium has developed a proprietary peer coaching methodology, certification program, and online platform we call Forum. This is the Institute’s inaugural and signature offering for other schools and educators.
Purpose
To ignite authentic connection through whole-self education.
Values
Authentic Connection: Building genuine relationships that foster trust and growth
Whole-Self Empowerment: Developing all aspects of educators and students
Innovative Education: Creating new approaches that address modern challenges
Inclusive Community: Ensuring all voices are heard and valued
Lifelong Impact: Implementing sustainable change that extends beyond the classroom
Vision
We imagine a world where all schools empower their adolescents for a life of well-being through authentic connection and whole-self integration.
Mission
To design and share innovative methods of education that advance well-being.
The Millennium Way
Our BE-FEEL-THINK-DO framework unlocks human potential and cultivates well-being through whole-self integration across four key domains:
- Awareness: Developing attention, self-knowledge, and a sense of interconnection
- Compassion: Cultivating empathy, deep listening, and authentic connection
- Wisdom: Building discernment, multiple perspective-taking, and integrative thinking
- Purpose: Creating meaning, alignment, and intentional action that serves all
This integrated framework seeks to develop the whole person, creating sustainable transformation that traditional content-based instructional methods cannot achieve. When implemented consistently across an educational ecosystem, the entire culture shifts to working and learning together from a pro-social worldview by asking: How do we all thrive?
Our Team
Our broad team consists of experienced educators, researchers, and facilitators who embody the practices we teach. We bring diverse perspectives united by a shared commitment to advancing well-being in education.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
- Jeff Snipes, Board Chair & Founder
- Lizzie Rogal, Head of Millennium School
- Newton Martin, Director of Operations
- Jessica Eicher, Director of Marketing & Communications
- Kate Moriarty, Director of Action Research
- Stephanie Kinkel, Director of Academic Architecture
- Daniel Rechtschaffen, Director of Mindfulness
- Cyndi Miracle, Forum Coordinator
EXECUTIVE COACHES & SR. FORUM FACILITATORS*
Jim Best
Co-Founder, The Leader Network; Previously Head of School at The Dalton School (NYC); Co-Founder & Board Chair, Global Online Academy; MA, M.Ed, Columbia Teachers College; Executive Coach, Berkeley ECI.
Katherine Dinh
Previously Head of School at Marin Country Day School: HOS Prospect Sierra School; Past Board Chair, NAIS; M.Ed, Harvard GSE; Executive Coach, Berkeley ECI.
Steve Morris
Senior Consultant, RG175; Previously Head of School, The San Francisco School; Board Chair, CAIS; Pahara Institute Fellow; M.Ed, Stanford GSE; Executive Coach, Berkeley ECI.
Bernie Noe
Co-Founder, The Leader Network; Previously Head of School at Lakeside School (Seattle); Upper School Principal, Sidwell Friends School (DC); Past Board Chair, NAIS; Founding Board Chair, Global Online Academy; MA, M.Phil, Georgetown University.
* Through our partnership with The Leader Network
Board & Advisors
Katherine Dinh*
Previously Head of School at Marin Country Day School, Prospect Sierra School, and Board Chair of NAIS, M.Ed, Harvard GSE, Executive Coach Certification, Berkeley ECI.
Rick Hanson
Founder, Global Compassion Coalition; Founder, Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience & Contemplative Wisdom; Psychologist & Neuroscientist; NYT Best-selling Author (“Buddha’s Brain”); Senior Fellow, UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center.
Xiaoan Li
Sr. Program Officer, Director of Spiritual Education, The Fetzer Institute. Board, Transformative Educational Leadership; Past Associate Professor, Indiana University; PhD in Higher Education & Organizational Change, UCLA.
Rhonda Magee
Professor, Emeritus and founding Director of the Center for Contemplative Law and Ethics at the University of San Francisco, Author, “Inner Work of Racial Justice”
Evan Marwell*
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Ignite! Reading; Founder & CEO, Education Superhighway; previously Founder of Shaka Capital, Partner of Criterion Capital Management, and Board Chair of Burke’s School; MBA, Harvard Business School.
Lisa Miller
Columbia University, Teachers College, Professor of Psychology & Education; Founder of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute & the Collaborative for Spirituality in Education; NYT Best-Selling Author; PhD. Pennsylvania University.
Denise Pope
Stanford University Graduate School of Education (GSE), Sr Lecturer in Emergent Curriculum Design; Co-Founder, Challenge Success; PhD, Stanford; M.Ed, Harvard.
Jeff Snipes*
Founder & Chairman of Millennium.org; previously CEO of Ninth House, Co-Founder & Executive Board of PDI Ninth House; Investor in various HRTech & EdTech companies and non-profit organizations related to education, connection and well-being.
Meena Srinivasan
Founding Executive Director, Transformative Educational Leadership (TEL); CEO, Karuna Consulting, LLC; Contemplative leader, speaker and author (“Teach, Breathe, Learn”); Mindfulness & SEL speaker (TEDx), teacher, consultant and author
Jenny Wade*
Principal Researcher & Professor of Integral & Transpersonal Psychology, CIIS Graduate School; Author, Consultant, Editor, International Journal of Transpersonal Studies.
James Willcox*
Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Greenhouse E3; previously Co-Founder & CEO of Strategic Growth Partners, CEO of Aspire Public Schools, Co-Founder & COO of Education for Change Public Schools, Principal at NewSchools Ventures. M.Ed, MBA, Stanford.
* Board of Trustees
Our Ecosystem
Millennium.org is a 501c3 non-profit organization with two operating divisions:
Millennium Institute
Develops and shares transformative education methods with education leaders and schools across the U.S. and around the world.
Millennium School
Our laboratory middle school in San Francisco where we innovate and refine our approaches through action research with students, educators, and parents.
PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
Strategic collaborations that expand our impact:
TheLeaderNetwork partners with leaders, teams, and boards ready to shape what’s next in independent education, through executive coaching, roundtables, customized team and board workshops, leadership growth assessments and strategic planning.
Millennium is proud to partner with TheLeaderNetwork to certify their coaches and license Millennium’s signature Forum peer-coaching methods and platform to over one hundred education leaders around the U.S..
Greenhouse E3 (Executive Education Experience) supports and develops CMO (Charter Management Organizations) executives, while also building regional and national pipelines of executive talent to lead CMOs across the country.
Millennium is proud to partner with Greenhouse E3 to train its coaches and license its signature Forum peer-coaching methods and platform to Charter School executives across the US.
Challenge Success is a non-profit organization affiliated with the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. Challenge Success partners with school communities to elevate student voice and implement research-based, equity-centered strategies that improve well-being, engagement, and belonging for all K-12 students. Supporting youth mental health and academic achievement is more important than ever before.
Millennium is proud to partner with Challenge Success to create research-based assessments, innovation roadmaps, and professional development opportunities for schools to improve the well-being of their communities.
millennium voices
Our collaborative storytelling platform shares research, case studies, and perspectives from our community of practice. Subscribe to join our growing community of educators committed to authentic connection and well-being.
