Team and Board:
We empower the way you educate.
Andre Jack (AJ) Fleuridas
Graduate of a self-made program in Entrepreneurship, Andre's degree from Studio School consisted of courses from Harvard, Pepperdine, & AFI.
A turning point in AJ's life came when the dean of his college, Mark Millhone, sat down with him to create this program, in which AJ would be the sole participant."What is the change you want to make in the world?"Mark asked. AJ realized he'd never been asked this question before. This was an empowering question. AJ's mission in life became to ensure that every student across the globe has at least one empowering moment like this in their education."It should be built into the system," he believes.
Since graduating, AJ has been to four countries visiting incredible schools and teaching empowering programs and workshops. At home and while abroad, AJ has been filming empowering schools and incredible students to show the world what amazing things are possible in education.
AJ and his business partner, Jillian, founded ÜKÜ in 2018 when they were still college students, with the plan to use their student perspective to create empowering experiences for fellow students.
Jillian Navarro
A graduate in the Film and Digital content program with a degree specializing in Directing and Entrepreneurship, Jillian Navarro’s key value has always been creating and capturing impactful stories. From a young age, Jillian was drawn to storytelling and its unique ability to impact the world through connecting and inspiring people. She found herself diving deeper into any, and every, art form that she could find to further explore what it meant to impact and connect with the world around her through her art. From playing classical piano to singing in a rock band, writing endless genre-defying stories, to photography, she explored storytelling of all forms until she found her artistic home in documentary cinema.
It was during this discovery that she also created the nonprofit Ükü with her business partner AJ, while a junior in college with the hopes of empowering the students and people around her. Ükü is dedicated to empowering education by connecting storytelling with tangible change-making. In addition to crafting story-driven programs and events, Ükü has a functioning production arm that is dedicated to crafting and sharing important, often untold, stories. Through her organization and passion for storytelling, she has traveled to seven different countries in the past seven months to film a documentary series proof of concept about the state of global education, work with the world’s top educators, deliver multiple workshops created and developed via ükü, and created a variety of digital content for educational organizations around the world.
Dr. Cindi Anderson, Ph.D.
Cindi Anderson holds a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, CA, and a BS in Communication Arts from California Polytechnic University in Pomona, CA. She has also done post-graduate studies in Film and Photography at California State University, Long Beach. Currently, Cindi is an adjunct professor at Studio School, which offers accredited BA / BFA degree programs in Film, Acting, Dance, Art, and Entrepreneurship. Additionally, she is an inaugural Instructor at the Joseph Campbell Writers’ Room and contributes articles to the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s MythBlast.
In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Anderson is also a leading Brand Strategist, Writer and Creative Producer specializing in performance-driven marketing for television and digital media. With over two decades working with Fortune 500 advertising, media, and marketing companies, she has launched and bolstered some of the world’s most well-known brands. Her commercials are seen around the globe.
She has also held a variety of administrative, development, and production positions for entertainment companies, including International Creative Management, Home Box Office, and Tall Pony Productions. She had the pleasure of working on television specials with David Bowie, Steve Winwood, Whoopi Goldberg, the Judds, Comic Relief, and many more. She has worked at locations all over the globe.
Her dissertation focuses on diminishing and emerging patterns of human engagement with Nature from Classical Greece through today: patterns that mirror the dynamics of the global economy, environmental activism, and the growing political divide seen around the world.
Lene Jensby Lange
Lene is one of Denmark’s leading specialists in future learning, school development & learning space design.
“Creativity in all forms is hugely important to nurture and inspire in our children. Schools that are open, tolerant, democratic institutions support children in all their different ways to develop, learn, and become the best possible version of their unique selves.” - Lene Jensby Lange
Lene was part of the renowned SKUB-project in Gentofte where the city’s 11 schools were rebuilt and transformed and the new Hellerup School was developed. She is often invited to give talks, consult on a major project, or help build a new school. In 2005, Lene founded Autens, a key player in innovating education in Scandinavian countries, in Europe, and across the globe
In 2015, Lene was appointed the official coordinator of the Global Schools Alliance, a collaborative conglomerate of some of the most innovative schools in the world. In 2018, Lene joined the board of ÜKÜ, a nonprofit company working to unite, cultivate, and accelerate the global movement to endow students with empowering education.
Mark Millhone, MFA
Mark is a groundbreaking educator, award-winning filmmaker, and published book author.
Mark currently serves as Director of Creative Studies for Studio School and the Hussian College Group. Studio School is the first BFA program launched in partnership with a major Hollywood Studio. Mark founded Studio’s Film & Digital Content program and led all education programs as Academic Dean. His current areas of research and teaching practice include: creativity, collaboration, experiential learning, innovation, arts entrepreneurship, and arts therapy. Mark is the Producer/Host of the EPIC Conversations podcast, which will debut spring 2020.
Dr. Monica Mallet, Ed.D.
With over twenty-one years of experience in the music, film, and education industries, Dr. Monica Mallet has empowered and transformed the lives of many people. She is a mother, daughter, sister, mentor, educator, and friend. She obtained an MFA from the highly acclaimed American Film Institute in Los Angeles, California, in Film Producing where her thesis film was one of the Student Academy Award winners. She has a doctorate from Pepperdine University in Organizational Leadership, where she was recently selected as one of Pepperdine’s top 40 over 40 Alumni.
Her passion for motivating and inspiring at-risk youth led her to become an Education Specialist in and around Los Angeles, California, where she has written curricula that aligns with the California State Content Standards. Moreover, she educates students with multiple, physical, mental, and emotional challenges. She recently received the Educational Excellence Award for making a difference in the lives of both students and families. She travels around the world as a National Staff Developer for AVID, where she has trained superintendents, district and site administrators, teachers, and students. She has specialized knowledge and experience in teaching teachers at the graduate level, as well as producing television shows and feature films. Dr. Mallet is committed to living a life of passion and purpose, and her mission is to empower others to do the same.
Dr. William Linn, Ph.D.
Will Linn, Ph.D., chairs the General Education Department at Studio School in Los Angeles Center Studios, which grounds an emphasis on story in myth. Dr. Linn has served as a Mythological RoundTable® Leader, Editorial Director, MythWorker and Interns Director for the Joseph Campbell Foundation. He was featured in Memory: Origins of Alien, which premiered in the 2019 Midnight Screening Series at Sundance.
He teaches courses, writes and presents on myth, story and philosophy. He has taught courses at the High School, College and Graduate level in Europe and the United States. Dr. Linn also hosts a Santa Monica Myth Salon, Atlas Obscura Myth & Studio Tour, and Mythosophia—a series for the Santa Barbara NewsPress radio station.
Will holds a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and a BA in philosophy from Sewanee: The University of the South.
