What do horses, yoga, death education, and developmental psychology have in common? Nothing—unless you’re talking with Lesa Rae Vartanian, who loves to find and share connections among things that seem unrelated. 

Who is Lesa? Well, the recipe would go something like this: Take a child raised with great love, firm boundaries, and much advantage and nurture her penchants for asking questions, making observations, and challenging assumptions. Then, fold in an undergraduate degree in communication, followed by a masters and a doctorate in developmental psychology. Sprinkle in personal passions such as working with horses, yoga, and northern climes. Allow this mixture to cure for a few decades in contexts of family, higher education, love, and loss. The result: A teacher, a mother, a caregiver, a companion willing to walk with, learn from, and offer support to others as they traverse the often-uncertain terrain that is everyone’s unique journey through life. 

A faculty member in the Psychology Department at Purdue Fort Wayne for 25 years, Lesa teaches development womb-to-tomb. Thanks to support from The Dekko Foundation and Garrett High School, the past few years she’s been helping teachers align their work with principles of adolescent development. She teaches quiet little girls to ride big horses with great confidence and leadership. And she’s mom to a most extraordinary young woman who will soon (as in way too soon) be off to college. 

If she’s not in a classroom of some kind or at the stable, she’s likely in the kitchen, or cuddled up with a couple of felines on the couch, dreaming of being on the Leelanau Peninsula or the Grand Traverse Bay in Northern Michigan.