board of directors
Janet Rao
Executive Director
With an extensive business background of over forty years, Jan and her husband have managed their own sales and marketing firm since 1979. As a parent of a therapeutic boarding school graduate she founded "Willows In The Wind" in 2007. Willows is a non-profit organization serving the needs of parents who place their teens in wilderness and therapeutic boarding schools. My desire to start Willows came from my own personal journey which transformed my life. Creating a network to help families navigate what could otherwise be a very isolating experience, was a high priority. A native of the east coast, Jan was born in Connecticut and relocated to the bay area in 1974. She resides with her husband of forty three years, and is the proud mom of two adult daughters.
Robin Sacks
Director
Robin has been an educator for more than thirty years, working primarily with students aged five to eight, and their families. She has worked both as a classroom teacher and as a resource specialist. Her expertise is in dealing with special needs children and their families. Coursework and real-life experience have helped her teach students with attention difficulties, emotional issues and those on the spectrum of autistic disorders, including some with pervasive developmental delay and others with Asperger Syndrome.
Robin left education mid-career to become a market research analyst. In that capacity, she gained experience writing, publishing and speaking both privately and with Fortune 500 company clients and publicly at industry conferences. Robin returned to teaching to continue her work with children and their families. Her daughter, now twenty-two, is a graduate of an emotional-growth boarding school.