Claudia Macias – MMHPI – Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute

Claudia Macias

Assistant Director, Brain Builders Program, The Hackett Center for Mental Health

Claudia has 25 years of experience in educational leadership and instruction. During her tenure with KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program), she founded and led two elementary schools, developed teachers, and led workshops for educators and parents. She received a proclamation from the City of Houston’s Mayor’s office when she founded and led KIPP’s second elementary school. As an education consultant, she has worked with Rice University’s School Literacy and Culture program, The University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston (Children’s Learning Institute), and Children’s Literacy Initiative-Philadelphia. She has mentored, trained, and supported teachers and parents of young children with the implementation of early literacy and language strategies throughout the state of Texas and California.

Claudia is also known as La Super Comadre Claudia on Radio Crystal USA, an online radio show and podcast, where she connects her bilingual listening audience to guests who have a passion, gift, story, or resource to uplift and inspire. She is the creator of “Lady Veggie and The Veggie Pals”, a live children’s performance series focused on developing healthy habits and is also the author of the children’s book, I Love You Even When You Cry. Claudia is an active volunteer in her community and is passionate about mentoring and inspiring children and youth.

In her role at the Meadows Institute, Claudia leads instruction and innovation for the Brain Builders program at The Hackett Center for Mental Health. Brain Builders is an evidence-informed two-generation parenting curriculum that builds parents’ knowledge and skill to optimize their child’s development prenatally and in the first three years of life. This upstream intervention is designed to decrease parental stress, increase responsive interaction, bonding, and attachment between parent and child, and to ultimately impact children’s lifelong mental and physical outcomes.

A native Houstonian, Claudia holds a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Houston and an M.S. in Education from the University of Houston at Clear Lake.

Claudia Macias