Our People
The BE REAL Team

Denise Hamburger
Founder & Executive Director
Denise’s experience with her own body dissatisfaction inspired her to help the next generation grow up with a healthier relationship to food and their body. Going back to school in her second act, she found a robust field of academic research on body image problems with tools that had not yet found their way to the teachers and children who needed them. She trained on three body image curricula and began to guest lecture to middle-school and high-school students in their health classes.
Once in the public schools, teachers were asking for resources to help with the widespread body image issues they were seeing every day. With the help of the Illinois State Board of Education, Denise created a workshop for teachers’ professional development called Body Confident Schools. Denise has presented this workshop to over 4000 health teachers, social workers, and school administrators in Illinois and around the country.
Denise has a B.A. in English Literature from the Honors College at the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. She is an Anti-bias, Antiracist (ABAR) certified co-author of BE REAL’s BodyKind high school, body image curriculum. She a founder and chair of the Collaborative of Eating Disorder Organizations (CEDO) and is on the board of the Eating Disorder Coalition (EDC) and the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD).
In her first career as an environmental lawyer, Denise wrote Pollution in the United Kingdom, published in London in 1993. For the last 25 years, she has been actively involved in school-based nonprofits, working to create quality educational opportunities for all children.

Julie Meute
Creative Head, Graphic Design, Website Design
Julie Meute has always been one of those creative, type-A, perfectionist, up-at-all hours self-proclaimed nerds who sees life as something between a term paper and an exciting musical adventure. After living her dream job at The Oprah Winfrey Show for over a decade, and a fun 2-year gig with ABC 7’s Windy City Live, she left her television career to be a stay-at-home mom to her son, Gabriel. Sometime after those sleepless infant nights and drowsy baby days, Julie started her own design business, Jultap Productions.
Since then, Julie has helped numerous clients with their online presence from branding and email campaigns to graphics and website builds. She especially enjoys supporting brilliant business women who are making their beautiful marks on the world. In her free time, she is usually sewing clothes, dancing or creating an adventurous life with her husband and son. Julie feels so blessed to have met Denise Hamburger and to have this opportunity to help promote BE REAL’s cause.


Stephanie Burrough
Ambassador Program Coordinator
For the past 13 years Stephanie has acted as Project Coordinator for Amy’s Gift, a Quad Cities Eating Disorders Consortium, whose mission is “to promote the hope, help and healing for those with eating disorders in the Quad Cities community”. In this work she connects her community with local and national resources for eating disorders treatment as well as coordinates trainings for eating disorders assessment, treatment and prevention.
In addition, she is a Community Relations Specialist at the Robert Young Center for Community Mental Health, where she acts as an advocate and organizer for various programs and trainings events relating to mental health. She is also a teacher with the Trauma Supports Yoga Team with Challenge to Change.
Stephanie is passionate about sharing the BE REAL materials with others, especially adolescents, so that we can all begin creating a narrative around mental health, self-care and body image that is supportive and sustaining for ALL. With additional work experience as a children’s theatre teacher, Stephanie’s diverse personal and professional knowledge have brought her here today to be a part of the BE REAL Ambassador team!

Be Real Interns
The BE REAL Board of Directors

Sarah Alter
President & CEO of The Network of Executive Women (NEW)
As CEO of NEW, Sarah leads a nonprofit learning, leadership and advocacy organization that represents more than 13,000 members, with over 1,000 corporate partners and 22 regions in the United States and Canada. Sarah works toward advancing gender equality and diversity in the retail, consumer goods, technology, and financial services industries. Sarah believes it’s time for more women leaders and more collaborative, flexible, and diverse workplaces for everyone.

Laura Eickman
Founder/Creator of REbel Curriculum
Laura Eickman, PsyD, is a psychologist and educator whose work focuses on eating disorders, body image, and empowerment. After earning degrees at the University of Nebraska and Baylor University, Laura provided psychotherapy in private practice for more than 10 years. Her commitment to educating the community about mental health and body acceptance eventually turned into her full-time career when she created the REbeL curriculum and began to work in the school setting. The name, REbeL, is based on the philosophy that we want students to “rebel” against conformity, peer pressure, the diet mentality, and our culture’s unrealistic appearance standards. Laura has spoken on these topics both nationally and internationally, and believes body confidence needs to be taught and encouraged everywhere. Laura and her husband live in Nebraska where she spends most of her time driving her three boys around. She also loves baking, yoga, and college football!

Lynn Slawsky
Executive Director of National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders (ANAD)
Passionate about building community, Lynn Slawsky is a project management professional with executive and operational leadership experience. She currently leads the Research & Evaluation team at Rotary International, where they work to increase understanding and knowledge of Rotary among staff and members. Before joining Rotary, Lynn was executive director of ANAD, a Chicago nonprofit that provides support services for people with eating disorders. She also has managed projects at the University of Chicago Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, American Library Association, and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. Lynn holds a bachelor’s degree in international development and a master’s degree in public administration, both from The Ohio State University. She lives with her husband, 5-YO, and 2 kitties in Chicago, Illinois, where she is on the boards of two local nonprofits that are both focused on education.