Some teens lead healthy, productive, positive lives. Others are troubled, self-destructive, and negative about themselves and the future. What makes the difference? The presence of specific assets in their lives―not financial assets, but Developmental Assets™ including family support, self-esteem, a caring school climate, adult role models, structured time, and positive peer influence. It's a proven fact: The more Developmental Assets™ a young person has, the less likely he or she is to engage in at-risk behaviors. Our best-selling book What Kids Need to Succeed tells parents, teachers, and community leaders how to build assets in young people. Now What Teens Need to Succeed inspires and empowers teens to build their own assets. It invites readers to identify the assets they already have and the ones they need, clearly describes the 40 assets identified as most essential, then gives hundreds of suggestions teens can use to develop the assets at home, at school, in the community, in the congregation, with friends, and with youth organizations. "Assets in Action" sections show how people across the nation are creating healthy communities using the asset-building model. Resources point the way toward additional books, organizations, and Web sites.
Award-winning author and publisher Judy Galbraith, M.A., has a master’s degree in guidance and counseling of the gifted. A former classroom teacher, she has worked with and taught gifted children and teens, their parents, and their teachers for many years.
In 1983 she started Free Spirit Publishing, which specializes in Self-Help for Kids® and Self-Help for Teens® books and other learning resources.
Judy is the author or coauthor of several books, including the perennially popular The Gifted Teen Survival Guide, The Survival Guide for Gifted Kids, When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All the Answers, and You Know Your Child Is Gifted When . . .
She has appeared on Oprah and has been featured in Family Circle and Family Life, as well as numerous other magazines, newspapers, and broadcast and online media.
Judy served for ten years on the Board of Directors of Search Institute, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to advancing the well-being of children and adolescents. From 2007–2010, she was a member of Minnesota 4-H Foundation Board of Trustees. In 1996, Judy received the E. Paul Torrance Creativity Award; in 2004, she was named the Midwest Publisher of the Year; in 2006, she was Honored for Excellence in Independent Publishing by Independent Publisher Book Awards; in 2011, she received the California Association for the Gifted (CAG) Ruth A. Martinson Award for significant contribution to gifted education; in 2012, she was given the Friend of the Gifted Award by the Minnesota Council for the Gifted and Talented for her sustained advocacy on behalf of gifted children; and in 2015, she received the NAGC Annemarie Roeper Global Awareness Award.
A popular speaker on the social and emotional needs of gifted students, Judy is available to conduct professional development workshops and to give conference keynotes. She is also available for classroom visits via Skype.
Judy lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Pamela Espeland authored, coauthored, or edited over 200 books for Free Spirit Publishing on a variety of subjects.
She graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Pamela passed away in September 2021.
