Young Innovator in Behavioral Health Awardee

After growing up with severe anxiety and experiencing the lack of mental health resources in schools firsthand, Tessa founded Upstream Education to ensure teachers have the tools to help their students manage stress and anxiety. She received a B.S. in Social Entrepreneurship from the Watson Institute at Lynn University. In 2016, Tessa won the Denver Public Schools Imaginarium Innovation Lab's Design Challenge for her idea to create a program of bite-sized, Tier 1 Mental Health tools. The following year, her first book, I Am Tessa, was published by One Idea Press. In 2021, Tessa delivered her TEDx talk called “The Power of 5 Minutes for Youth Mental Health.” Tessa is a 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. She has led Upstream to be one of the five national winners of the Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children’s Mental Health Innovation Awards. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband.