Zubeida Ullah-Eilenberg, M.S.Ed.
Founder, Advance/Enhance
Zubeida Ullah-Eilenberg is an educator and executive function specialist with over two decades of experience supporting neurodivergent students and their families.
She holds a Master of Science in Education from Adelphi University and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Bard College. Her early career included ten years in a multidisciplinary family practice, where she worked under the supervision of a licensed clinician.
Zubeida has worked across a wide range of public and private educational settings, including:
SEIT and SETSS provider for the City of New York
High school teacher for NYC Public Schools
Early childhood educator at an independent day school
Support specialist in a mixed-age after-school program for preteens with special needs
In her private practice, Zubeida focuses on students in the critical window between late elementary and early high school, guiding them through academic, emotional, and executive function transitions. She also supports early learners through LITE Steps, a picture-based storybook series for children ages 3–5, built around a natural developmental arc: listening, imitation, trying, and eventually expressing thoughts, ideas, and emotions.
Zubeida is the creator of Cognitive Keys, a seven-part executive function system for students ages 9–14. Each Key draws from tools she has studied closely and applied across educational, clinical, and home settings. Designed for the moment when students begin to form lasting habits and a sense of self-direction, the system builds capacity in four core areas: independence, emotional regulation, task completion, and reflective thinking.
Her work is grounded in evidence-based frameworks while remaining responsive to the texture of real life. The Get Ready–Do–Done model, developed by Kristen Jacobsen and Sarah Ward of Cognitive Connections, shapes the anchor lesson of her planning tools. The SMART Goals framework informs how she teaches goal-setting in ways that feel personal and achievable for students. These and other research-backed systems have influenced her thinking, while reaffirming her core design principles: clarity, adaptability, and meaning.
From a crowded landscape of interventions, Zubeida curated the seven tools that now form the foundation of Cognitive Keys, selecting them for their developmental alignment, flexibility across settings, and capacity to foster measurable, lasting growth.
Through BookQuest, a reading-based executive function program, and New Day Connect, a digital app currently in development, Zubeida continues to design tools that bridge research and lived experience. Her work centers on equipping students — and the adults who support them — with practical systems that build lifelong habits, one intentional step at a time.