Theresa Wnenta
Theresa Wnenta is founder and owner of SAFE Choice, LLC an educational service organization focused on safety and prevention education. As a mama-bear to four children (teen to preschool) and with almost 2 decades of working in the education sector, Theresa knows first-hand how important personal safety education is for every child. Seeing a need in her community for more prevention education offerings that empower and educate youth, Theresa created SAFE Choice. Her company is the only Arizona licensed and certified provider of the Play It Safe programming (defense strategies for women and children). Since 2003, this fun, interactive and age-appropriate programming has been taught to over 120 thousand women and children in schools, Girl Scout Troops, and businesses across 7 states, and has been featured on national TV programs such as the Doctors and Dr. Phil.
As the lead instructor, Theresa and her team empower and teach students practical self-protection from verbal and physical conflict (SEL, resilience building, conflict resolution/bully prevention), body safety education (sexual abuse prevention), and online/in-person situational stranger awareness (abduction prevention/sex-trafficking prevention/cyber-safety). SAFE Choice is a Program Partner with the Girl Scouts Arizona-Cactus Pine-Council and also works with valley public/private schools, houses of worship and businesses.
Theresa has worked professionally in the public education sector for over 17 years in various roles of teaching Special Education, school operations, school development and risk management. An Arizona native and avid learner, Theresa earned her Bachelors of Science at Northern Arizona University and her Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Currently, Theresa serves as the Corporate Risk Manager for a national non-profit public charter school network