Life & Work with Dee Dee Vicino

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dee Dee Vicino.

Hi Dee, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My life, like so many others, changed dramatically in 2008. When the market crashed, I lost about 75% of my net worth. I sold my house, re-entered the workforce after a 17 year sabbatical spent raising children, and moved my family into a smaller, more manageable home. I loved my new career – first as a middle school teacher and later as an Assistant Principal, but this new life did not suit my youngest child well. By 2015 my only goal was to GET OUT. Get out of South Florida. Get my child out of danger. I found myself living in a world in which the police were pounding on my door in the middle of the night to inform me that she had been involved in a car accident; a world in which my neighbors were calling to tell me she was sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night. A world in which her “friends” were not breaking into my home, stealing her things, or threatening her life. We had to leave this world behind. And my career along with it. We moved to Colorado and there I gave myself permission to rest.

To heal. To put the past behind us and focus on the future. My daughter thrived in Colorado. She meditated. She journaled. She enrolled in the local community college and began her college studies while completing an online high school program. She recently graduated from CSU with a degree in Business Communications and was asked, and successfully gave, the Commencement Speech. After two years, it was time for Mom to find a job. A former English teacher and assistant principal who was then forty-nine years young, I focused on the education industry. While I found plenty of jobs, I couldn’t seem to land a job. I later discovered that the jobs for which I interviewed went to those already working in the school district—and much younger too. Every. Single. Time. This continued for about a year. I learned something very important during that year: I needed to make a change. But if I wasn’t a teacher or an administrator, who was I? The school system may have deemed me too old, but C.S Lewis assured me that I was not “too old to dream a new dream, “and certainly not “too old to set a new goal.” It was time for this old dog—now fifty—to learn a few new tricks. The first new trick involved revisiting old tricks. What could I do? What did I want to do? What did I love to do? What skills did I possess? Once I answered these questions, I expanded my job search and targeted a new industry. I reinvented myself, rebranded myself. And it worked. In less than a month, I found my “dream job”—director of training and education for one of the largest food-allergy training companies in the country. During the initial interview, it was clear that I lacked experience with commercial kitchens and with the e-learning world.

Yep, this old dog needed to learn a second trick. This trick involved gaining experience in the areas where there was lack, post haste. I quickly made arrangements to tour several commercial kitchens so I had an understanding of how restaurants accommodated customers with food allergies and intolerances. I took that knowledge and created a training program using an innovating e-learning platform I found online. After a few follow-up emails and a lunch meeting, I got the job. This is the part where I jump up and down and cry tears of joy and post my success all over social media, right? And I did . . . until I didn’t. A disturbing realization displaced my short-lived enthusiasm: my dream job did not come with a dream boss.

So, I walked out right of that office and into a brand new life. A life in which I was in control. A life that I wanted to live. A life in which I made the calls. I threw caution to the wind and started my own business (as a Food Allergy Coach and an Educational Consultant) and three new tricks was all it took: 1. Focus on what you CAN do, not what you CAN’T do. 2. Knowledge is power, and you CAN reclaim your power with knowledge. 3. Walk away from misery. Life is too short to remain in a job you don’t like, in a relationship that isn’t working, or in a questionable lifestyle. When I fled Florida four years ago, I would never have dreamt that I would own my own business, speak at global summits and conferences, have a boutique cookbook and an Interactive eBook for Educators on the shelves. I certainly wouldn’t have imagined that I would be a contributing author to an international bestselling book. So many undreamt dreams have come true for me. Thank you, C.S. Lewis, for reminding me that we are never too old to set new goals, dream new dreams, or learn new tricks!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It was definitely NOT a smooth road. Adjusting to a new career after 17 years at home definitely took some doing, and I needed to reacquaint myself with educational standards, polices, and protocols. In order to move into administration, I had to return to graduate school. As a single mom balancing raising kids with a full-time teaching job, this was quite a task. After our move to Colorado, I encountered insane bureaucratic roadblocks to educational licensing, and if not for the connections of an administrative assistant in the Poudre Valley School District, I may never have become licensed to teach in Colorado. I sacrificed a career that I loved, I encountered much age discrimination as I searched for a job in Colorado, and just when things were ready to really take off, a long came COVID and shut everything down. My work is dependent on public speaking and seminars, and that just didn’t happen in 2020. However, I am hopeful that things will turn around in 2021 and that the foundation I laid in 2020 will lead to success in 2021. I did manage to author a Graphy (an Interactive eBook) to help teachers transition from in-person to remote instruction, and I did facilitate a few Breakout Sessions at virtual conferences in 2020, and have been slated to present at several others this year, so I consider that a win!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My entire life has been dedicated to improving the lives of children, and that certainly carries through to my professional life, as well. I am an Education Advocate and Consultant and a Parenting Coach who works with both schools and parents. I LOVE working with teachers and administrators in the areas of Classroom Management and Literacy. There is a saying, “Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” and if we are to effectively educate children, we must effectively control our classrooms so that we create a caring and inclusive environment in which children feel safe to express themselves and to LEARN. I am known for my classroom management skills and was an “Observation Classroom” while I was teaching. Basically, this meant that teachers who struggled in this area were sent to observe my class. I also facilitated classroom management training sessions for new and struggling teachers. I also worked with other teachers within our Network of Schools (Charter Schools USA) whose students struggled with basic literacy skills to get them to proficiency and beyond. Boy I miss my students! Helping parents manage their children is also a passion mine.

Parents are often confronted with situations that they have NO IDEA how to handle, and I love working with them so that they understand child behavior and effective disciplinary techniques. I teach a course, Redirecting Children’s Behavior, so that benefits both parents and children and leads to happy, peaceful encounters between the two, regardless of age. I am also a food allergy expert and work with schools to help them create safe and inclusive environments for their students with life-threatening food allergies and other dietary issues. In addition to working with schools, I also work with parents and help them navigate the complexities of raising children with life-threatening food allergies. What am I most proud of? So many things. I am proud of my children for carving their paths, overcoming obstacles, and following their dreams. I am proud of my education journey and of my students – I love hearing from them and learning of their successes. I am proud of having my student’s work published in anthologies, and I am proud to have learned from one of the best Principal’s to have ever walked the earth – Donte Fulton-Collins. I am proud of the work we did to bring our elementary school from a C school back to an A school, and I am proud of the dedication and perseverance of ALL of our teachers. I am proud to have authored a proposal to protect consumers with Food Allergies – a proposal that was ultimately accepted by the conference for Food Protection (Kind of like an FDA Food Court), and I am proud to be certified Food Allergy Coach and Consultant.

I am proud of my Graphy, and of my cookbook. I am proud to have been asked to partner with Leah Robilotto of the Food Allergy Institute and I am proud of the course we developed to help parents navigate the complexities of raising children with food allergies (The Ultimate Guide to Finding Your AllerTribe), and I am proud of the food allergy course I created for Corporations – AllerSolutions. What sets me apart from others is experience… I have raised two food-allergic children, fostered two teen-age boys, co-founded a daycare center for parents of homeless children, worked with former child-soldiers in Liberia, Africa, survived difficult and border-line traumatic teenage years, effectively taught children of all ages, was a 3x Merit Award recipient for student success, taught teachers of all ages, and ran an A+ school with over 1500 students and 85 teachers. I have lived every side of the education angle and have come out on top. I remain fascinated with child development, and I continue to learn and grow so that I can help others learn and grow. Including my own now-adult children. It’s been a crazy journey and one a heck of ride thus far…and I can’t WAIT to see what’s coming next.

What are your plans for the future?
I plan to continue doing what I’m doing, and doing it well. Working with teachers is pure joy for me, and working with parents provides me with a great sense of satisfaction. Knowing that what I do with adults positively impacts kids makes everything worthwhile. I look forward to the world reopening, I look forward to travel and face-to-face interaction with teachers, students, and parents. I look forward to continuing to contribute positively to lives of teachers and students and parents at home and abroad. The abroad part will be new, but that is the plan – to go from a National Influence to an International Influence. Who knows? Maybe I’ll see you in Paris someday :).

Contact Info:

• Email: deedee@deedeevicino.com
• Website: deedeevicino.com
• Instagram: @deedeevicino
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeeDeeVicinoSPEAKS
• Twitter: @deedeevicino
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCripLVpccyatGx9DnCYtEZA
• Other: allercuisine.com