Our People

Connie Sobczak

Founder & Executive Director

Connie’s (she/her) experience with an eating disorder in her teen years and the death of her sister Stephanie inspired her life’s work to help people live with more appreciation and love for their precious bodies. She founded The Body Positive in honor of her sister, and to ensure that her daughter Carmen and other children would grow up in a new world—one where people are free to focus on the things in life that really matter. Connie is the author of Embody: Learning to Love Your Unique Body (and quiet that critical voice!), her book in which she skillfully and lovingly reconnects readers to their essence and life force. She has been training Be Body Positive Facilitators for more than twenty years, and uses her creative skills to produce The Body Positive’s curricula, videos, digital courses, and trainings. Connie’s passion is watching the light that emerges when people recognize and embrace their magnificent, authentic selves.

Elizabeth Scott

FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF TRAINING

Elizabeth Scott, LCSW, CEDS-S, (she/her) is an educator and psychotherapist whose work focuses on the intersection of embodiment, social justice, and mindfulness. As Co-Founder and Director of Training for The Body Positive, Elizabeth instructs treatment professionals, educators, and students to use the Be Body Positive Model to end eating disorders and promote joyful embodiment. Elizabeth is a Certified Eating Disorders Specialist and IAEDP(TM) Approved Supervisor (CEDS-S). She studies Insight Meditation and has a private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Babak Sani (he/him) is an attorney specializing in intellectual property law for over 30 years. Babak has been a longtime supporter of a number of non-profits focusing on education and the arts, the environment, and immigration reform among others. For some of these organizations, including the East Bay Community Law Center and the Clemency Project, he has provided pro bono legal services. He has helped lead a campaign to revise the history and social science content standards for K-12 textbooks adopted by the State of California in order to better reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of California’s students. Babak has been a friend of The Body Positive for a number of years, is a father of two daughters, and lives in Berkeley, California.

Athena Nair (they/them) is an artist, activist, and healer who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA. They graduated from Tufts University in 2023 with a B.S. in Psychology. Athena’s organizing, social media presence, dancing, playwriting, singing, directing, and acting all center on body liberation and telling untold stories. They have worked with The Body Positive since fall of 2018 after being trained as a Be Body Positive Facilitator. In 2022, Athena starred in an episode about their life and their journey with resisting body oppression in Disney+ docu-series Growing Up. More of Athena’s recent work in body positivity includes holding workshops and Be Body Positive trainings at various schools and organizations, speaking on a congressional briefing in support of the Eating Disorders Prevention in Schools Act, and their TEDx talk on body positivity and fatphobia (bit.ly/athena-tedx). For more of their work, head to bit.ly/athena-nair and on Instagram @Athena Nair

Jessica Diaz France, LCSW, (she/her) began working with The Body Positive as a high school peer leader in 2001. Since then, she has supported the organization by helping to write curricula, developing and facilitating peer leadership trainings, blog writing, and participating in video projects. Jessica serves as a Board Member on The Body Positive’s Board of Directors. She holds a B.A. in Politics, and minors in Legal Studies and Music from the University of San Francisco. She also holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from San Francisco State University. Her thesis project was curricula for a 1-unit master’s-level course entitled “Size Diversity for Masters of Social Work Students.” Jessica is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, working as a Program Manager of Adult and Older Adult Programs at County of Marin, Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. Jessica is a bilingual Spanish speaker and lives in Marin County with her husband and two sons.

Paraag Marathe (he/him), President of 49ers Enterprises & EVP of Football Operations, is the San Francisco 49ers chief contract negotiator and salary cap architect, in conjunction with presiding over 49ers Enterprises business ventures and investments. Notably, on the business investment side, Marathe is chairman of Leeds United Football Club of the English Football League Championship, as 49ers Enterprises holds full ownership of the club. Beyond the 49ers, Marathe is a faculty member at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Marathe is a philanthropist, sitting on the Board of Directors for Andrea’s Voice, Project HEAL, and Sequoia Hospital Foundation—where both of his daughters were born. In recognition, Marathe was selected as a member of the Sports Business Journal’s 2015 Forty Under 40 class, in addition to being a two-time recipient (2012 & 2019) of the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s Johnnie L. Cochran Salute to Excellence Award. Marathe, his wife, Jennifer, and two daughters, Juniper and Maren, live in Los Altos, California.

Kelli Finley (she/her) is a long-time non-profit professional working to create more equitable and kinder experiences so that all people can have access to a high quality of life. Her roles have included executive director, development director, and program manager working in spaces focused on mental health, social justice, youth development and advocacy, suicide prevention, and the intersection of families and incarceration. Kelli has spent a bulk of her career building the next iterations of nonprofits helping to build strategy and decision making that is value-based. She is currently a Deputy Public Guardian for the County of Marin. She enjoys time with her family including her two rescue dogs, Willow and Dublin, live music, a tough workout, and infectious laughter.