Co-Founder & CEO

Javier Payano!

I am excited for you to join the Teach Human Values Membership because you will learn how to bring mindfulness and emotional awareness to your relationships, promoting wellbeing for everyone lucky enough to know you, including your colleagues and students.

Becoming a member will also connect you with a community of teachers that believe they can make an impact through practicing Education in Human Values. Our teachers, students, and families have benefited so deeply through human values and I want you also to experience the same freedom and power.

Wellbeing is a skill, and we learn better when we practice it!

 Board Chair, Operations Consultant and HR

Jamie Umanzor (they/she)

Jamie Umanzor is a neurodiverse, queer person of color, a child of immigrants with invisible disabilities, and a dedicated DEIB advocate. With over 18 years of experience, they have led grassroots efforts across California, Hawaii, and Chicago through national and regional trainings, conferences, and initiatives. They were the first national manager at YMCA of the USA focused on LGBTQIA+ equity and inclusion.

Jamie holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of San Francisco and an M.A. in Public Administration from Capella University. In 2020, they founded C3 Equity, offering LGBTQIA+ and organizational DEIB consulting. They later served as Board Chair of Human Values Collective and Director of DEI at Howard Brown Health before rebranding C3 Equity into Mindful Inclusivity in 2024, focusing on mindfulness-based inclusivity strategies.

Passionate about indigenous spirituality, inclusivity, and LGBTQIA+ advocacy, Jamie is also a self-proclaimed Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) nerd. They always carry polyhedral dice for impromptu games and created a "homebrew" D&D campaign inspired by pre-colonial Hawaiian culture and the modern sovereignty movement.

Co-founder, Marketing Director

Andrea Benavides (she/her)

Andrea Benavides Chaves is a Conscious Parenting and Adulting Coach. She is passionate about helping adults create a life they enjoy, that gives them energy, and is powered by fulfilling relationships.

Andrea is the founder and CEO of Evolving Creations LLC where she provides individual and group coaching for her clients. She is also the co-founder of the Human Values Collective and serves as part of the leadership team. Traveling and laughing at dad jokes are some of her favorite activities!

Engagement & Operations Specialist

Victoria Gabrielsen (she/her)

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Victoria’s love of music started when she was 3 years old, when her grandmother took her to see her first musical. Victoria grew up in New Berlin, Wisconsin, where she had the most passionate and loving orchestra teachers.

In late 2016, Victoria officially moved to Chicago, which had been a dream of hers since she was a child. With over 10 years of music-teaching experience, she currently teaches private violin/viola lessons and group violin classes to students of all ages at LYRIQ Music School. She has been working with the Human Values Collective since 2020, after attending the Education in Human Values workshops in 2018 and 2019.

With HVC, Victoria has contributed her skills as an accountant, meeting facilitator, lesson-plan coordinator, and administrative assistant. Her favorite aspects of HVC are the creation of safe spaces while doing inner healing work and the meditative practices. Victoria’s other hobbies include reading, hiking, playing mandolin, learning languages, playing video games, snuggling her cat Mabel, and attending as many live concerts as possible.

Development Director

Melody Fevrier (she/her)

Melody Fevrier was born in Castries, St. Lucia. She graduated from North Park University in 2022 with a Bachelor’s degree in Arts with an emphasis in Music in General Studies, where she also received a certificate in Music for Social Change & Education in Human Values under the tutelage of Dr. Tom Zelle. Melody currently serves with the Human Values Collective as the Development Director. She has seen tremendous growth in herself, her relationships and work as a person, teacher and musician through the practice of Human Values and hopes to continue in this Educational teaching both in her current community and in other parts of the world.

Melody is passionate about sustainable living and care for the earth. She lived in an intentional community called Jesus People in Uptown Chicago from 2022 to 2023 where she has learned to value care for and presence with other people through heartfelt relationships. In 2024 she travelled internationally to participate in a program in the Peruvian Amazon with Chaikuni Institute, an organisation that provides training in Intercultural Education, Permaculture, and Human & Nature Rights. She then interned with The Talking Farm from August to November 2024 where she gained hands-on experience in Urban Farming and Growing Organic Food.

Melody currently works as a Classroom Assistant with an afterschool program called Madonna Mission which assists children from refugee families with academics and language skills. Melody enjoys writing poetry, learning languages, riding her bike and seeking out nature and new cuisines in Chicago in her free time.

IT and Programs Director

Mi Ran Choi (they/she)

Mi Ran Choi (they/she) is a Chicago-based cellist and teacher passionate for accessible, empowering music education. Mi Ran majored in cello performance at Los Angeles City College and at North Park University in Chicago (NPU). At LACC, they were a recipient of the David A. Alpert Scholarship Award and were engaged in various chamber ensembles, LACC’s community orchestra and choir, and a cohort of applied music students who studied abroad in Madrid’s Colegio Major Mara in 2016.

At NPU, they served as principal cellist and TA in the university orchestra and were active as a chamber musician, winning first place in the university’s chamber music competition in 2019. As part of their work for a Certificate in Music for Social Change and Human Values, they studied abroad in Thailand in Summer 2019, teaching music, English, and Human Values.

Mi Ran maintains a teaching studio with the Chicago West Community Music Center’s Westside Instructional Strings and Harp (WISH) Program and serves as senior cello faculty at NEIU’s Community Music Program. They additionally serve as a board member of Crossing Borders Music and serve the Human Values Collective as a leadership team member and webmaster. Additionally, they serve as an Alpert Scholarship Coordinator and chamber ensembles coach at Los Angeles City College for the 2024-2025 academic year.