Anabel Jensen

Anabel Jensen is known for developing emotional intelligence (EQ) curriculum and creating an effective test of EQ that succeeds better than the SAT at predicting college success. She has trained over 10,000 educators, parents, and individuals in social and emotional learning. Her approach is looking at a child from a comprehensive perspective, finding the child’s strengths, and encouraging discovery for the child to recognize and believe in those abilities. She was named one of the top 100 Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal for her work in the field of emotional intelligence. 

For 14 years, Anabel was Executive Director of the Nueva Learning Center in Silicon Valley where she worked with Karen Stone-McCown integrating EQ into the curriculum. This school was one of the leaders in pioneering social emotional learning and gifted education.

After the Nueva School, Anabel co-founded Six Seconds, the largest emotional intelligence network in the world. Located in over 160 countries, this non-profit educates people about EQ by teaching, practice, and implementing emotional intelligence skills. Anabel helped develop the Six Seconds model, three simple steps for incorporating emotional intelligence into everyday life. She also co-authored social and emotional assessments to help people strengthen their EQ skills.

To empower more students, Anabel co-founded and was CEO of Synapse School, a model elementary and middle school in Silicon Valley. This school integrates social and emotional learning with an innovative, project-based curriculum to encourage a community of change makers. 6 Arts Academy is based on this Synapse model.

Anabel was a psychology professor at the Notre Dame De Namur University in California and Department Chair of the school’s College of Education Department. She was also a principal advisor to the Gifted Support Center and an advisor for Unite Education. 

Anabel attended Brigham Young University and graduated with a BA in psychology and a Masters of Education. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley where she majored in child development.