Panel: Vibrant Minds, Healthy Futures: Cognitive Wellness and Neurodiversity.
Saturday, January 31 at 9:30 AM
Exploring the interplay between the actions we take today and the long-term effects on cognitive health.
This multidisciplinary panel brings together experts in chiropractic care, cognitive health, integrative wellness, entrepreneurship, and lived experiences to explore the interplay between the actions we take today and the long-term effects on cognitive health. The panel will discuss how cognitive decline occurs, why it is not just a disease of the elderly, the importance of early intervention and why early action is essential to support neurodevelopment.
Experience Description
Cognitive health is often an afterthought for most people and an issue associated with older adults. Decline in cognitive health can start long before there are any symptoms and requires a proactive approach to prevent cognitive disease. Moderated by Angela Lombrozo, Founder of My Brain Buddies, this dynamic panel brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts—Dr. Joe Snyder, a chiropractic specialist; Joan Brackin, a career scientist and certified health coach; Rani Choagh from Pacific Health Group, and Pam Covarrubias, a neurodivergent entrepreneur, podcast host, and social media influencer. Together, they will explore the root causes of why you develop cognitive issues, the critical interplay of leading a lifestyle that focus on optimizing brain heath, working with neurodiversity, and a focus on strategies you can take now to ensure a long and healthy mindspan. In addition, Pam will share her personal journey navigating neurodiversity while building a thriving business, offering insights on resilience, self-advocacy, and the power of lived experience. Attendees will leave inspired and equipped with knowledge and strategies to strengthen cognitive development at all ages, foster inclusive environments for neurodivergence, and with positive outlooks for a successful personal and professional environment based on vibrant cognitive health.
Key Takeaways
Attendees will walk away with:
Understanding the main reasons why our brains start to fail.
Actions and strategies we can take NOW to prevent cognitive decline.
Understanding neurodiversity and its impact on cognitive health and wellness.
Insights from lived experience: thriving as a neurodivergent entrepreneur.
Integrative, cross-disciplinary strategies for holistic cognitive health.
Presenters
Angela Lombrozo
Angela Lombrozo is the founder of My Brain Buddies, a mission-driven company creating 100% organic, non-toxic plushies and bilingual educational storybooks that celebrate neurodiversity. Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Angela moved to San Diego at age 12, bringing with her a deep appreciation for culture, community, and the power of representation. Inspired by her own family’s journey and her advocacy for neurodiverse children, she set out to create safe, inclusive products that help kids feel seen, supported, and understood, especially within underserved and Spanish-speaking communities.
Angela is also a Certified Peer Mentor with the Tourette Association of America, where she supports families navigating Tourette Syndrome and helps raise awareness and education around neurodiversity.
Her commitment to impact extends beyond her products. Through sustainable manufacturing in Peru, My Brain Buddies empowers women artisans, promotes ethical production, and reduces toxic materials in children’s products. Her work blends education, social good, and entrepreneurship, raising awareness about neurodiversity and product safety while expanding access to families worldwide.
Outside of My Brain Buddies, Angela has built a successful 12-year career in real estate and holds a degree in Criminology with a minor in Sociology from Cal State San Marcos. She lives a holistic lifestyle in San Diego with her husband, her two daughters, their dog, and their beloved chickens. Angela loves staying active, spending time with her family, and giving back to the community through volunteer work with multiple organizations. She is dedicated to building a future where every child has a buddy who reflects their uniqueness and a story that helps them feel valued.
Joan Brackin
Joan spent the first few decades of her career as a scientist and engineer working in both a Fortune 500 company as well as medium-sized engineering firms. Her focus was on developing novel agricultural solutions, technology for clean-up of contaminated surface and groundwater, and protection of our endangered coastline.
Joan left her corporate career 13 years ago to take care of her mother who had developed dementia. While taking care of her mother and working with several skilled integrative medicine doctors, she realized there was a much-needed paradigm shift for healthy aging. One that encompasses cognitive health as an integration of the physical, emotional, spiritual, and social aspects of health. Joan restarted her career in 2016 as a Certified Integrative Medicine Health Coach and has had her own private practice for 7 years.
Joan developed her current business, CogniStrength, from her personal experience with life-altering cognitive disease and a passion to make a difference in the prevention and reversal of cognitive impairment. The field of knowledge for understanding the multiple causes of cognitive disease is growing by quantum leaps. The new models of cognitive decline lend so much more hope for being able to live a long and healthy life without ever succumbing to cognitive impairment. These new models incorporate modifiable risk factors, epigenetic changes, inflammation reduction, and even the social and spiritual aspects of maintaining good cognitive health.
On the CogniStrength site, there are articles on cutting edge cognitive research, solutions for achieving optimal brain health, product recommendations, test kits to give you insight on your current health, and unique medicinal candles to enhance your overall wellbeing. It is Joan’s sincere desire you join us in this vastly growing community of people dedicated to living a full and vibrant life free of cognitive issues.
Rani Cholagh
Rani Cholagh serves as the Leader of Strategic Partnerships for Pacific Health Group, where he leads countywide efforts to strengthen whole person care through collaboration, coordination, and community trust. His work spans healthcare, behavioral health, justice involved systems, housing partners, schools, faith based organizations, and community groups, bringing together diverse stakeholders around a shared commitment to improving lives.
Rani focuses on reducing silos, building purposeful partnerships, and creating coordinated pathways that support vulnerable populations, ensuring individuals and families have clear, connected, and barrier free access to care.
Grounded in purpose, trust, and outcomes, Rani approaches his work with the belief that meaningful and measurable change happens when systems align and communities work together, always choosing what is right for the people they serve.
Pam Covarrubias
Pam Covarrubias is a double Certified Life and Business Coach, Certified Clinical EFT Practitioner, Speaker, Podcaster, and Recovering Procrastinator who became the coach her immigrant mother needed.
Grounded in liberation principles and trauma-informed practices, Pam mentors women in business to reclaim their voices, worth, and joy while building enterprises that honor both strategy and soul. She is the creator of the Unmute & Reclaim Method™, a framework that helps clients move past procrastination, align with their intuition, and step fully into their power.
Since 2018, Pam has served as an advisor with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), where she has coached and consulted over 1,000 businesses to launch, grow, and thrive. Beyond her private coaching, she has collaborated with major brands including Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Planned Parenthood, BigCommerce, BMO, Mission Fed, Gold Peak, Savvy Ladies, and more.
As the host of the globally acclaimed Café con Pam® podcast, she shares candid, thought-provoking conversations with diverse voices in entrepreneurship, social justice, and personal growth, offering an inspiring resource for women ready to grow with purpose. A former corporate executive, Pam blends her business expertise with mindset tools like EFT, somatics, and cultural identity work, equipping women to grow not just profitable ventures, but sustainable, fulfilling lives.
Dr. Joe Snyder
Dr. Joseph Snyder has been a practicing chiropractic physician for 15 years in San Diego. He is a second generation chiropractor and works with all ages, newborns to seniors. He started "Hands for Life" non-profit, which helps deliver chiropractic care to underserved populations in Mexico and San Diego. His practice in Eastlake Chula Vista. Dr. Snyder has been working alongside patients who have a higher susceptibility for neurocognitve decline in his practice.
