Connie Sobczak and Elizabeth Scott, LCSW, founded The Body Positive in 1996 because of their shared passion to create a lively, healing community that offers freedom from suffocating societal messages that keep people in a perpetual struggle with their bodies. Connie’s experience with an eating disorder in her teen years and the death of her sister Stephanie inspired her life’s work to improve the self-image of youth and adults. She founded The Body Positive in honor of her sister, and to ensure that her daughter Carmen and other children would grow up in a new world—one where people focus on the things in life that really matter. Elizabeth has been practicing psychotherapy for 25 years, specializing in eating disorders treatment. She is committed to The Body Positive’s work because it brings great meaning to her life when she can help people leave body hatred behind and become free to focus on their precious life purpose.
The Body Positive teaches people how to reconnect to their innate body wisdom so they can have more balanced, joyful self-care, and a relationship with their whole selves that is guided by love, forgiveness, and humor.
Co-founder &
Executive Director
Connie Sobczak is a mentor, writer, educator, and award-winning video producer. Her experience with an eating disorder in her teen years and the death of her sister Stephanie inspired her life’s work to create a world where all people are free to love their bodies.
Read More >Co-founder
Elizabeth has been practicing psychotherapy in Marin County, California for 28 years, specializing in eating disorders treatment. She has refined the core Competencies of the Be Body Positive Model to be appropriate for the treatment, as well as the prevention, of eating problems.
Read More >Board Chair
Vice Chair
Paul Hammond has collaborated with The Body Positive for several years as a creative consultant, working on videos, print and digital graphics, and the new Body Positive Psychotherapy continuing education online course. Paul and his wife, Christina Spann, recently...
Read More >Treasurer
Secretary
Jessica Diaz France began working with The Body Positive as a high school peer leader in 2001. Since then she has supported the organization by helping to write curricula, developing and facilitating peer leadership trainings, blog writing, and...
Read More >Jan Maseda is a recent retiree after more than 30 years working in the nonprofit sector. Jan began her professional career as a Paralegal, working for over 10 years in Los Angeles. After a brief hiatus to have two children, she became the Regional Director of Special Olympics...
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