Instructors & Coaches
Ed Center
Ed Center is a queer brown dad who coaches parents and other kid-raisers toward greater connection, calm, and joy. Ed worked in education for 25 years, starting as a high school teacher, always focused on the needs of kids of color. During the height of the pandemic, Ed’s son suffered an acute mental health crisis. Searching for support, Ed discovered the field of positive parenting and learned strategies and tools to strengthen his connection with his son, leading to healing for the whole family. However, Ed was frustrated with the lack of attention to diverse cultures and traditions in the positive parenting courses and literature, as well as a dearth of focus on healing trauma in children and parents. He started The Village Well to bring more connection, joy, and healing to families of color. The child of a Filipino American mother and White-American father, Ed grew up in Hawai’i, and feels at home there, in the Philippines, in San Francisco, and wherever he smells good barbecue. Schedule a free first session with Ed.
Allison Kenny
Allison Kenny (she/her) is is a certified coach, supporting parents to give themselves the same radical care they give their children. She specializes in working with families navigating neurodivergence, healing, and families built through adoption. A queer, white woman, Allison identifies as a disabled artist who built resilience through her challenges with PTSD and chronic illness. Joy and empathy shine through her day to day interactions. She spent her early career creating and running inclusive youth development programs in the Bay Area including arts and empowerment camps for girls and gender-expansive youth.
Allison and her wife adopted their brilliant daughter through foster care in 2009, and learned to honor her neurodivergent brain with love, creativity, and a village of support. Their queer, multiracial family recently moved to the high desert of New Mexico, where their daughter receives specialized schooling for her ADHD, PTSD, and attachment disorder. She’s currently being assessed for Autism and loves Greek mythology, therapeutic horseback riding, and building forts by the Rio Grande with her Moms.
Chris Punongbayan
Chris Punongbayan is a yoga and meditation teacher based in San Francisco. His personal and professional work is inspired by all of the peacemakers striving to make the world a better, safer, and just place for all. Chris completed his 200 hr Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) at Yoga Tree in 2016, and is in the process of wrapping up his 300 hr YTT with Janet Stone Yoga. He is also enrolled in the Mindfulness for Lawyers Teacher Training program with Warrior One. For the past 14 years, Chris has served in executive leadership roles at non-profit organizations in San Francisco. During the pandemic, Chris meditated for 489 consecutive days - a record he is NOT trying to beat. He and his husband (The Village Well founder, Ed Center) are raising two sons and three cats in San Francisco. You can follow him on YouTube and Instagram.
Faauuga Moliga-Puletasi
Faauuga is a bilcultural, bilingual Lincensed Clinical Social Worker who is passionate about helping teens and families. He is a proud parent of three Children. Faauuga grew up in the San Francisco neighborhoods of Bernal Heights and Hunter’s Point, where he lived in public housing and graduated from San Francisco Unified School District before attending City College of San Francisco and San Jose State University, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Justice Studies. Faauuga realized that his educational training was not sufficient to support underserved students and families, so he went back to San Jose State once, to earn his masters in Social Work.
Currently, Faauuga is an adolescent youth specialist supporting teens and families who need help dealing with daily struggles. Faauuga is also a crisis worker for the Comprehensive Crisis Service program for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
Faauuga has a lot of compassion for his clients as he is a parent and a trauma survivor. His goal in therapy is to help the individuals who are suffering, so they can find peace and happiness and rebound from what they are overcoming.