About

I’m Janna Lind Hankins.  I’ve been an educator and counselor for 16 years.  No one told me when I began teaching that I’d be expected to leave my personal life (and often my humanity) at the front entrance of my school.

I began my educational journey bright eyed and bushy tailed. I yearned to be the best teacher I could be. After three years of teaching, I became a mother. Things got harder, but I thought I was still okay. I started a masters program and got a divorce. No matter how hard I tried, I still felt lonely and isolated in my classroom. I began to doubt that I could really be the teacher I wanted to be. Burnout was stalking. I had no healthy tools or people to help me cope.  My expectations for myself remained sky high, but I increasingly felt that I was failing to meet them. I left the classroom and became a school counselor. I thought that perhaps now, I could be my best self.  Then COVID hit, and education was turned on its head. Stress and burnout returned. In 2022, I experienced a severe family tragedy, and my family was thrown into disarray. Still, I was expected to leave my personal life at the door. It was during this time that LiftED was born. I designed a curriculum and invited a group of educators to work toward health and wellness together. We learned that we have to process our feelings and thoughts in a healthy way. We can’t afford to leave our humanity at the door. With realistic expectations, healthy emotions, support, and the right tools, we CAN be the educators we were always meant to be.