A graduate of the University of Michigan (Bachelor of Theatre Arts, 2000), Tenley began her teaching career in 2000 at the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival as Director of Camps and theatre instructor. In 2005, she attained her Master of Arts in English and Master of Arts in Teaching from Belmont University.

With over 15 professional years in education, Tenley’s greatest passion is to facilitate growth and emotional intelligence amongst her students. She began creating and writing curriculum as a public high school English teacher in 2007, when she spearheaded the Dual Enrollment English (DE) program at Mount Vernon High School in Alexandria, Virginia (Dual Enrollment English is a college-level class for high school seniors who then receive college credit upon completion). In her first year as a 12th grade English teacher, Tenley utilized the four years she had spent teaching college English in Nashville, TN to build the Dual Enrollment curriculum, which has continually been implemented since 2007. During her tenure as a teacher at MVHS, she also designed a social-emotional curriculum, integrating it into her common core lesson plans. She then began working one-on-one with many of her students during lunch and after school to assist them in emotional intelligence, self-awareness, communication, and career readiness.

As a Certified Professional Life Coach (certified through iPEC), founder of Limitless Heart Life Coaching, LLC (est. 2011) and author of Leap Before You Look; Seven Steps to Discover Who You Are, What You Want, and How to Change the World (2014), Tenley Hardin specializes in life purpose coaching and college counseling. In the past six years, she has worked with clients from all over the country, many of whom have gone on to pursue their dreams at institutions such as Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Tulane, BC, American, Northwestern, Chapman, University of Oregon, UT Austin, Indiana, and many more. Having been a yoga and Pilates instructor for five years in her mid-twenties, she continues to fuse life coaching techniques with mindfulness and meditation, knowing that the way to best optimize an individual’s potential is to foster emotional, physical, and spiritual growth. Tenley continues to expand her knowledge and experience as a graduate student in Pepperdine University’s Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology with an Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy program.

After conducting several social-emotional workshops at Simi Valley High School and goal setting seminars amongst parenting groups in Woodland Hills, Tenley sought out resources to further develop SEL curriculum and eventually joined True Connection in 2016 as Curriculum Director. In the last two years, she has collaborated with the TC team to create what she calls, “A game changer in education.”