About the AuthorPatricia Talbot( CEO and Co-Founder )Patti cultivates homegrown changemakers prepared to step into their power and work with others to create the world they want to live in.  Get in touch to find out how you can grow the social changemaker in yourself and those you serve with Blue Roads Changemaker YOU. 

















When Danielle Coughlin talks about being “twice exceptional”, she’s talking about kids who are both gifted and experiencing some kind of learning challenge.  She readily admits that this category describes her own experience of the world as well. I met Danielle as a student at Radford University who traveled with a group I was supervising to Malawi to work in a village school there.  Her gifts for deep reflection and critical thinking were immediately apparent to me as she grappled with the poverty we encountered that enveloped the lives of friendly people with many gifts in the “Warm Heart of Africa.”.  Her own experience as an exceptional child has motivated her to help others reach their gifts within. Watch the video of our conversation, listen to the podcast and read the summary below  to learn about Danielle's work as an educator and advocate for children and the adults who serve them. 



































Homegrown DanielleDanielle was born to a Navy father and a hospital nurse mother, who later moved into pharmaceutical sales. Her upbringing provided a lot of opportunities.  She and her dad bonded over deep conversation and big ideas. Every time we were in the car, we were talking theory and politics and philosophy. He never held back and even when we disagreed, he would just ask me why…It was an open opportunity to exchange and to question.Her parents split up when she was a teenager, resulting to the end of what she describes as a beautiful childhood, despite some traumatic circumstances.  She remains very close to her sister who is now an anesthesiologist. I think that everything we went through as kids kind of made us more resilient and bonded us.Danielle is proud of the fact that her sister marched in counter protest to the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesvil...