RealOptions’ Director of Education

Charmaine has had a lifelong passion for helping families. She worked for over 15 years in higher education and graduated from Santa Clara University and Western Seminary. She also founded and co-teaches a premarital and marriage ministry called Marriage Fundamentals, which has educated and coached couples for 30 years. A native of the Bay Area, she is a wife and mother to four daughters. Coming from a family with a long history in the healthcare industry, she has a particular health interest in the medical arena.

RealOptions’ Education Manager

Asaya Azah is a certified instructor in the RealEssentials Curriculum. She has a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Global Maternal and Child Health from Tulane University School of Public Health. She understands how invaluable having healthy relationships with ourselves and others is to our overall well-being, which is why she enjoys being in the classroom and teaching students the RealEssentials Curriculum. She believes it gives them an opportunity to model true health and wellness in every aspect of their young lives, especially in the area of relationships.

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educator

Justin, our dedicated educator and former General Manager, brings his passion for lifelong community changes to our team. With a degree in English and Secondary Education, he transitioned into the hospitality industry to better serve the community. Through the restaurant, he has established impactful youth internship programs in partnership with various schools, equipping disadvantaged youth with specialized skills and leadership training. Justin advocates for mentors and role models to be global change-makers, extending their impact beyond their immediate circles to create a better world for all.

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educator

Jenn Gonzalez is a Campus Outreach Manager and Optimal Health Educator and facilitates Rachel’s Vineyard healing retreats for anyone who has been impacted by pregnancy loss at RealOptions. She is Mexican American and a Bay Area native who is bilingual in English and Spanish. She is a first-generation college graduate from Saint Mary’s College of CA with a BA in Women’s Studies. She is also a certified Holistic Nutrition Consultant and Relationship Education instructor. She is passionate about empowering women and students from underrepresented groups to access vital resources and embrace their unique gifts to thrive in all aspects of their lives.

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educator

Suzanne Stewart is a certified instructor in RealEssential Curriculum, having joined Real Options in April 2023. She has a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in Human Resources from San Jose State University. After 20 years working in the high-tech field, she left in 2019 to spend a year as a drug and mental health counselor at an in-patient treatment center and became a Certified Life Mastery and Dreambuilder Coach with Brave Thinking Institute. She is a native of the Bay Area, a wife, a mother to one son, and a stepmother to two boys and a daughter. She enjoys spending time with her grandkids, walking on the beach, reading, and caring for her parents. She is excited to be working as a Contract Educator, helping students achieve their life’s purposes and the importance of having healthy relationships with themselves and others.

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educator

Donna joins our team as a RealOptions educator with extensive experience in social work, teaching, counseling, and life coaching. Donna received her Master’s in Counseling Psychology from the University of San Francisco. She served the Silicon Valley community as an adjunct professor at William Jessup University and Western Seminary. Donna’s passion for seeing lives changed through education has been her mandate since the beginning of her working career. Donna currently resides in San Jose and has one adult son.

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educator

Ross Malinowski is UPWARD’s Treasurer and founding board member, ran the Silicon Valley office for a leading national executive search firm for 15 years, and conducted national and international searches at the C-suite and VP levels. Ross has worked at the Board of Director level with not-for-profits, and he was the founding board member of the Positive Coaching Alliance and served on their National Board of Directors for over 15 years. Ross brings all his experience and enthusiasm into the classroom as a RealOptions Educator.

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educator

Andrea Reinke has served at Real Options for the last year as a RealTalk Educator. Her focus has been with 5th and 6th graders teaching them life skills, emotional skills and communication skills through using the Real Essentials Curriculum. She likes to bring love and warmth into the classroom. She has also been a nurse for 12 years and has her nursing degree from Johns Hopkins University. Prior, she served at RealOptions as well for 4 years as a nurse sonographer. Lastly, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, South America as a Health Volunteer.

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educator

Jasmine is passionate about equipping and inspiring the next generation, one student at a time. She holds a B.A. and a minor in Education from UC Berkeley, and is certified as an instructor in RealEssentials Curriculum. Jasmine has also spent a large part of her previous years mentoring high school and college students to grow as leaders and to build healthy, meaningful relationships with themselves and others. She gets energized spending time with students, and counts it a privilege and joy to be part of their journeys, to guide and encourage them as they discover who they are and who they want to become. She currently resides in the Bay Area with her husband, Andy.

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educator
Camilla San Juan is currently finishing her B.A in Public Health at UC Berkeley. Afterwards, she plans on getting her M.D in Family and Marriage Counseling. Camilla strongly believes that the most important way to support the youth to have a healthy future is through education. Before working at RealOptions, she was a k-12th grade math tutor for two years . When she is not studying or working, she enjoys spending time with her younger brothers and dancing!

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educator

Cece graduated from UC Berkeley with both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Social Welfare and worked as a medical social worker for 10 years.  While delivering training and presentations at Genentech as a Patient Navigator, she discovered that this was her passion – making training more influential, resonant, and memorable, and pursued a certification by the Association of Talent Development in Virtual Facilitation and Presentation.  After the birth of her son, and an unexpected health battle that ended up being a blessing, she found healing and a new calling in becoming a certified Coach, receiving her certification as a Christian Certified Leadership Coach through Coach Approach Ministries, with a focus on career and personality assessments as well as personal transformation and freedom from limiting beliefs.  She hopes to inspire youth towards better life decisions as well as help fellow Education Team members to present and train with greater lasting impact. 

RealOptions’ Optimal Health Educators

Alan and Maureen Crownover have been married for 36 years and are currently enjoying grandparenthood. They have a passion for sharing effective tools with parents to help equip their children to navigate their way to healthy relationships and sexuality. This passion is fueled by the love they have for youth and the desire to see them flourish and their personal experience of being parents of pre-teens and teens and feeling ill-equipped to help their children face the challenges of managing their relationships and sexuality in today’s culture. Alan and Maureen are certified as Sexual Risk Avoidance Specialists and have been supporters and volunteers at RealOptions over the last 15 years.