Meet the Team

Diondraya Taylor

Founder & CEO
I’m Diondraya Taylor, and I’m the founder of Mindset & Milestones. I got my first exposure to entrepreneurship during my time at UCLA while getting my B.S. in psychobiology, and eventually picked up a minor in entrepreneurship purely out of interest in just how it’s a vehicle for pushing innovation.

At the same time, I also began to delve deeper into issues of gender equity and understood education to be a big part of the problem and also the solution. So I decided to ask more questions and am currently working on a PhD in education to do exactly that. As I worked in and fell in love with the startup space, I recognized entrepreneurship as an amazing tool to encourage innovation, goal setting, and boldness in students, and specifically girls at a time when gender inequity is still a reality.

When I created Mindset and Milestones, my initial vision was to develop a self-guided workbook for students to explore entrepreneurship. What I quickly realized was that what students needed wasn’t simply more resources, but rather a safe space, supported by trusted mentors, where they could experience mindset shifts and see for themselves how remarkably possible their own ideas are.

Arcellia Budiman

Operations Associate
Arcellia, also known as Celly, is a UCLA graduate who studied Communications with minors in Entrepreneurship & Environmental Systems and Society. Celly has worked with companies across multiple industries—agriculture, fashion, tech, and education. Celly talks about her experience growing up in Indonesia as it relates to women accessing education, and she realizes the need for opportunities that allow girls to acquire a strong education and new skills.
By joining the team as the Operations Associate, she holds the long term vision that Mindset & Milestones can be a channel for students around the world to have equal opportunity to hone and practice their entrepreneurial skills and bloom into leaders with good purpose and good hearts.

Cara Griffin

Sales Representative
Cara Griffin maintains over 20 years of experience as an educator, ed-tech innovator, entrepreneur, and mental health, wellness, and education advocate. She is passionate about bringing equal and tenable learning and life creation opportunities to all students, families, and the passionate professionals who guide and teach them. Having founded volunteer organizations and a consulting firm, and observing the positive evolution of entrepreneurial opportunity and mentorship for her own daughter, she is thrilled with the empowering learning package which Mindset and Milestones brings to students everywhere. Cara looks forward to forging relationships with schools and organizations and building the best fit programs that launch the next generation of inspiring and unstoppable entrepreneurs!

Emily Steidl

Content Marketing Associate
Emily is a student at UCLA studying Sociology, Entrepreneurship, and Professional Writing. After working and volunteering in the youth mental health field for over 6 years, she was excited to explore new avenues for empowering young people! She has been involved in entrepreneurial programs since high school where she had the opportunity to start her own successful business and compete in new-venture competitions. Having direct experience with the skills and value these programs can provide, she loves working for Mindset & Milestones because she is passionate about helping other young people gain similar entrepreneurial opportunities. 

We create materials to help teachers teach girls entrepreneurial skills! Our curriculum not only empowers girls but also gives educators the tools to lead entrepreneurial experiences in their own schools.
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