As a Digital Wellness Educator, I help families, schools, and communities create healthier relationships with technology. I draw on both professional expertise and parenting experience, grounded in a commitment to mental health, to offer support that is compassionate, realistic, and rooted in lived experience as well as science.

Over the past three decades, I’ve worked at the intersection of children, technology, and learning—always with a focus on promoting literacy and meaningful human connection. As an early elementary library media specialist, a parent of two grown sons, and a lifelong learner, I’ve seen how screens can both enrich and distract our lives.

My path to digital wellness has grown out of many life experiences. I began in natural resource management, shifted into high-tech mapping, managed technology in a private school, helped run a family business, and eventually found my home in public school libraries. Each step added perspective and skills that now shape my work—blending my love of information, curiosity, and passion for health, wellness, and relationships into practical, research-informed guidance.

Outside of work, I enjoy time with friends and family, cycling, reading, experimenting in the kitchen, and walking my chocolate lab, Teddy.

Ilene can be reached at
ilene@gaiacounseling.com