Austina De Bonte is the owner of Smart is not Easy, LLC, which provides consulting for school administrators, professional development for educators, and parent coaching. Since 2012, Austina has also served as the President of the Northwest Gifted Child Association (www.nwgca.org), the Washington State support and advocacy non-profit for families with gifted children. A dynamic and engaging presenter, Austina speaks regularly at conferences, as well as conducts parent education talks and professional development workshops for educators about the unique social and emotional development of highly capable (HiCap) or “gifted” children. She also works with school district teams to develop and fine-tune their HiCap program models, especially concerning equitable identification strategies. Austina’s signature style combines her experience as a parent and parent coach along with synthesized research, current district practices across Washington State, and cutting edge neuroscience. She is an advocate who is passionate about the unique social and emotional development of highly capable (HiCap) students, and the problems that can result when students are not properly identified and served. Austina has a Masters degree from MIT, and did her thesis work in the MIT Media Lab’s Epistemology and Learning Group, where Lego Mindstorms was invented. Austina is a certified SENG Model Parent Group facilitator.