The Hernandez Family

A shared belief in building community and creating impact for social good

Michelle and Alex met in Los Angeles in 2002 as she was returning from two years working in Sydney, Australia and he was leaving a business career to teach high school math. They immediately found that they held a shared belief in building community and creating impact for social good. Twenty years later, those values still serve as the cornerstone for their marriage and their work in the world.

Founder and CEO of Leading Elephants

Michelle is the Founder and CEO of Leading Elephants LLC – a national consulting, leadership development and coaching firm with a mission of building thriving, human-centered workplaces. Leading Elephants’ sweet spot is in supporting organizations on the sticky issues affecting organizational culture, change management, leadership and team effectiveness. Some of their favorite work lives at the intersection of diversity, inclusion, belongingness and leadership. As a remote organization since its founding, Michelle is grateful to seamlessly transition her work to Vermont as she joins the Champlain College community.

Michelle is happiest when she is enjoying the great outdoors, and spending time with friends and family. Having spent part of her 20s in Ludlow, Vermont, Michelle is still an avid skier, snowboarder, hiker and kayaker. She loves home as well as global adventures, and her boys will tell you she is usually the one urging the family to try canyoning, paragliding or snorkeling with sea turtles. Alex and Michelle are grateful for the warm welcome they have received in Vermont and, with the twins heading off to college in 2023, are excited to embrace this next phase of life in their new community.

Meet the Boys

Meet Mekhi

Kind-Hearted, Musician, and Young Data Scientist

Since he was “yea high”, Mekhi has been passionate about games and how things and people work. He plays Magic the Gathering most weekends, sings and plays guitar in his school rock band and is learning to play soccer on his school’s varsity team. Mekhi is known for his affability and empathy, both as a leader at school and with his family.

Mekhi spent his summer studying machine learning at Brown University, working on a UVA data science project on criminal justice, and building tools to analyze education inequalities in public schools.

Meet Akari

Theater Kid, Social Activist, Hilarious

Akari is a prolific singer (participating in three choirs last year alone), an avid member of the theater community, and a passionate social activist. During high school, he could be found speaking to legislators about fossil fuel policy, serving as Vice President of the Thespian Society, and organizing an international youth conference on climate change. Akari is also the comedian of the family and keeps his parents rolling on the ground!