HERNANDO is a veteran coach who works well with adolescents and “failure to launch” cases providing structure and commitment, accountability and compassion. Previously he was a celebrated performer, dancing with the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project for more than two decades. In 1991, as a direct reaction to the AIDS epidemic, Hernando founded Dancers Responding to AIDS. Now in its 26th year, D.R.A. provides social services and financial aid to dancers and performers living with HIV/AIDS and other life threatening illness. In this, his second career, Hernando shifted from the creative arts to the service arts. Today he finds great joy and satisfaction helping others succeed in putting life in a working order. He shares his life’s narrative as an athlete and former dancer/choreographer/activist who enjoyed success, and then found a new and deep meaning in service work. He has worked with Change Inc, and trained under Brad Lamm and noted trauma therapist and teacher Kathleen Murphy, LPC since 2015. Hernando graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a second degree in addiction studies and social work.