About the Contributors

Wolfgang Althof is the Teresa M. Fischer Professor of Citizenship Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis where he also serves as the director of the Citizenship-Education Clearing House (CECH) and as codirector (with Marvin W. Berkowitz) of the Center for Character and Citizenship. He has a PhD from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and a “Habilitation” (higher-level doctorate; Dr. habil.) from the University of Oldenburg, Germany.

Karen Mariska Atkinson has been director of Children First since 1994. Children First is a pioneering community initiative in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, focusing on the healthy development of young people. Karen has consulted with people interested in this community engagement model from communities across the United States and four other continents. Prior to this, she was vice president of the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce. Karen has a degree in public relations from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University.

Maya Falcon Aviles is the psychiatric social worker at Farmdale Elementary School in Los Angeles. She has been working with students, families, school staff, and the El Sereno Community, where Farmdale is located, for seven years. Mrs. Aviles obtained her master’s degree in social work, her bachelor’s degree in psychology, and her Pupil Personnel Services credential from the University of California, Los Angeles. As a new parent, Mrs. Aviles hopes that her daughter Atziri will benefit from programs like Positive Action that promote positive behavior and character in instruction.

Nick Axford, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Social Research Unit, Dartington, UK. He has fourteen years of experience measuring child well-being and service use and of using the data to inform service design. He has also worked at several sites in the UK and Ireland to ensure the successful implementation and evaluation of evidence-based programs. He has a PhD in social work from the University of Exeter and a master’s in European social policy analysis from the University of Bath.

Betty Bardige, EdD, is an educator and developmental psychologist who has worked with Facing History and Ourselves as a board member, volunteer, parent, and consultant for more than thirty years. She has written numerous books and articles for early childhood professionals and the general public, including At a Loss for Words: How America Is Failing Our Children and What We Can Do about It. She currently chairs the board of the Brazelton Touchpoints Foundation. She holds a doctorate in human development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Joyce A. Barnes, EdS, currently a specialist in the Office of the Superintendent for Jefferson County Public Schools (Louisville, Kentucky), has served the district for forty-four years as both a teacher and administrator. Her work has encompassed elementary education, exceptional child education, resource development, and communications. She earned a BS in elementary education from Spalding University in Louisville and both an MEd in neurological impairment and an EdS in educational administration from the University of Louisville.

Dennis J. Barr, EdD, is director of evaluation for Facing History and Ourselves and an adjunct lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has conducted evaluation and other research in the context of programs designed to promote social, moral, historical, and civic learning in youth for more than twenty years. Dr. Barr earned a BA in psychology from Occidental College and an EdM and EdD from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is also a licensed clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Anna Bateman is a coach consultant project manager for the PATHS social-emotional learning curriculum in Birmingham, UK. She has eighteen years of experience working within primary schools and for Birmingham Education Authority as a teacher, advisor, and consultant, with a particular focus on children’s emotional and social development. She has a degree in Early Childhood Education and a postgraduate certificate of education.

James M. Bentley is a sixth-grade teacher in Elk Grove, California; has taught sixteen years in grades 8 through 5; and served as districtwide trainer for math, reading, writing, and word study. Mr. Bentley also works as a state and national trainer with the Center for Civic Education as California’s Third Congressional District coordinator for the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution and We the People: Project Citizen curricula. In 2007, he codirected Elk Grove Unified School District’s School Violence Prevention and Demonstration Program. He earned his BS in social sciences with special emphasis in cross-cultural studies.

Marvin W. Berkowitz, PhD, the McDonnell Professor of Character Education, President Thomas Jefferson Professor, and codirector of the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, is a developmental psychologist specializing in character development and education. He is author of more than one hundred book chapters and journal articles and coeditor of the Journal for Research in Character Education. Dr. Berkowitz earned his BA at the State University of New York at Buffalo and his master’s and doctorate at Wayne State University.

Sheldon H. Berman, PhD, served as superintendent of Hudson Public Schools in Massachusetts for fourteen years and superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, for four years. He was appointed superintendent of Eugene (Oregon) 4J School District on July 1, 2011. He was a founder and president of Educators for Social Responsibility and is the author of numerous articles, books, and chapters on civic education, character education, service learning, virtual education, and education reform. He received his master’s and doctorate of education degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an MEd from the University of Maine, and his BA from the University of Wisconsin.

Melinda C. Bier, PhD, is associate director of the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. She has extensive experience in the adoption of K–12 educational innovations, in designing and managing professional development for geographically and culturally diverse teachers, and in the philanthropic sector. Her recent work spans the fields of character education, professional development, and the investigation of youth-produced media to achieve academic, character, and health outcomes for youth and communities.

Elena Bodrova, PhD, is a principal researcher at the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) and a research fellow at the National Institute of Early Education Research at Rutgers. Jointly with Dr. Deborah J. Leong, she has written extensively on the applications of the Vygotskian approach to early childhood education and codeveloped Tools of the Mind curriculum. She received her PhD in educational psychology and child development from the Russian Academy of Educational Sciences and her MA in educational psychology and child development from Moscow State University.

Satpal Boyes is a coach consultant in the PATHS social-emotional learning program for Birmingham Local Authority (UK). She qualified as a teacher in 1988 and has taught in primary and secondary schools across Birmingham.

Margaret Stimmann Branson, PhD, is associate director of the Center for Civic Education. Previously, she was assistant superintendent for Kern County Schools, California. Dr. Branson was associate professor of education at Holy Names University and director of secondary education at Mills College, Oakland, California. She has authored numerous textbooks and professional articles. She was one of the editorial directors and principal researchers and writers of the National Standards for Civics and Government. She served on the management team for the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Civics, on the International Education Association National Expert Panel on US Civic Education, and on the Res Publica: An International Framework for Education for Democracy development committee.

Patricia C. Broderick, PhD, is author of Learning to BREATHE, a mindfulness curriculum for adolescents. She is a research associate at the Penn State Prevention Research Center and a licensed clinical psychologist, school psychologist, and school counselor. The fourth edition of her developmental psychology textbook, The Life Span: Human Development for Helping Professionals (Broderick & Blewitt) will be published in 2013 by Pearson Education.

Fay E. Brown, PhD, is associate research scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. She is also the director of child and adolescent development for the Comer School Development Program. Her major focus in working with schools is to help them create and maintain developmentally appropriate conditions that will foster academic learning and ensure the holistic development of every child.

Philip M. Brown, PhD, is a fellow of the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University where he founded and directed the Center for Social and Character Development. He served in student services–related management positions in the New Jersey Department of Education and the Pennsylvania Department of Health for twenty-five years. He has served as principal investigator on several research grants from the US Department of Education; as a school board director; as a Global Advisory Board member of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Network; as president of the New Jersey Alliance for Social, Emotional and Character Development; and as a member of the National School Climate Council. He received his doctorate in adult developmental psychology and the addictions from the Union Institute and University.

Vanessa Camilleri is director of student support services at the Arts and Technology Academy, Public Charter School, in Washington, D.C. She is currently completing her doctoral studies in education leadership and policy at the University of Maryland. She has published and presented widely and remains committed to designing schools that aim at developing academically, socially, and emotionally competent individuals.

Florence C. Chang, PhD, is evaluation specialist for Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in the Department of Accountability, Research, and Planning. She has been a researcher and evaluator for nine years and has been the lead evaluator on several major evaluation studies related to the social and emotional development of students. Previous to JCPS, Dr. Chang was a researcher at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. She earned her doctorate in cognitive development from the University of Louisville.

Jonathan Cohen, PhD, is president and cofounder of the National School Climate Center and adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and at the School of Professional Studies, City University of New York. He is also the cofounder and cochair (with Terry Pickeral) of the National School Climate Council and has authored eighty-five papers and books, including Educating Minds and Hearts: Social Emotional Learning and the Passage into Adolescence and Caring Classroom/Intelligent Schools. He earned his PhD in clinical psychology from the City University of New York and completed postdoctoral fellowships at New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Center.

James P. Comer, MD, is the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine’s Child Study Center. He is known nationally and internationally and has received numerous awards for his creation in 1968 of the Comer School Development Program (SDP), the first modern school reform program based on the centrality and application of child and adolescent development principles to school practice. He is the author of ten books, including Maggie’s American Dream and Leave No Child Behind, and the recipient of many honors and awards, including forty-seven honorary degrees.

Maureen Connolly, EdD, is an English teacher at Mineola High School in Long Island, NY. She has developed many service learning projects that link community outreach, character education, and classroom content. Dr. Connolly has also coauthored a book on the Common Core State Standards for ELA entitled Getting to the Core of English Language Arts Grades 6–12: How to Meet the Common Core State Standards with Lessons from the Field. She earned her doctorate at St. John’s University.

Michael W. Corrigan, EdD, is associate professor and director of research at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. He teaches educational psychology, human development, and research methods. Dr. Corrigan’s more recent large-scale research projects include five US Department of Education grants studying character development and academic achievement in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia, as well as a National Science Foundation grant collaborating with NASA that studies the impact of science-based inquiry on academic achievement in at-risk youth. His earlier research into the deviant behavior of youth in relation to community engagement was funded through the Department of Justice. Dr. Corrigan is the founder of the nonprofit Neighbor’s Day Initiative Group, which seeks to build safer communities for youth, and his community work has been featured in the Christian Science Monitor and other national publications.

E. Janet Czarnecki, MA, is assistant principal at Lake Riviera Middle School (eight years). She previously taught special education for sixteen years at LRMS and in the Elizabeth School District. In 2000, Mrs. Czarnecki became chair of LRMS’s Character Education Initiative. During these eleven years, LRMS was named a New Jersey School of Character from 2009 to 2013, a National School of Character for 2011, and a recipient of several grants through Learn and Serve America, Rutgers University, and the New Jersey Department of Education. Mrs. Czarnecki received her MA in urban education from New Jersey City University, Jersey City.

Lisa M. De Bellis, MA, is a doctoral candidate at Fordham University in the Applied Developmental Psychology Program. She has worked on the evaluation of several after-school and out-of-school-time initiatives for over five years.

Ms. Teresita Saracho de Palma is principal at Farmdale Elementary School, an International Baccalaureate World School located in the El Sereno community in East Los Angeles. A native of El Sereno, she has worked at Farmdale Elementary School for fifteen years and for the Los Angeles Unified School District for thirty-four years. Ms. Saracho de Palma began as a teacher of autistic students. She has worked in special education programs and bilingual programs, both of which have been integrated at Farmdale Elementary. Ms. Saracho de Palma obtained her master of science degree in education from the University of Southern California and a second master of arts degree in educational administration from California State University, Los Angeles. She is dedicated to helping improve the academic, behavior, and character development at Farmdale Elementary by implementing Positive Action schoolwide.

Joyce A. DeVoss, PhD, is associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Northern Arizona University. She is currently coordinator of the MEd School Counseling Program at Northern Arizona University in Tucson, cochair of the Arizona School Counseling Association (AZSCA) Research Committee, and coeditor of the journal School Counseling Research and Practice. Dr. DeVoss coauthored the book School Counselors as Educational Leaders (2006), has published articles and book chapters, and has presented at local, state, national, and international levels.

Maurice J. Elias, PhD, is professor and director of clinical PhD training for the Psychology Department at Rutgers University and serves as academic director of Rutgers’ Civic Engagement and Service Education Partnerships Program. He is past president of the Society for Community Research and Action/Division 27 (Community Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, and director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab. He is the author of numerous books for the general public and professional articles, and he writes a blog on social-emotional and character development (SECD) for the George Lucas Educational Foundation at www.edutopia.org. He received his doctorate from the University of Connecticut.

Connie Flanagan, PhD, is professor in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in a program on civic action and research in civil society. Her work focuses on the development of political theories and commitments in adolescence. Her doctorate in psychology is from the University of Michigan.

Brian R. Flay, DPhil, is professor of health promotion and health behavior at Oregon State University. He has been conducting school-based randomized trials in schools (in Canada, California, Chicago, and Hawaii) for thirty years. Most of his past work has concerned the development and evaluation of programs for the prevention of substance abuse, violence, and AIDS. Recent studies focus on positive youth development, including social-emotional and character education. He is currently conducting several studies of the Positive Action program.

Erin Gallay has been a practitioner of service learning and environmental education for nearly fifteen years, focusing primarily on youth civic action projects involving environmental issues. She has worked with K–12 schools, universities, and community organizations throughout the state of Michigan. She holds degrees in environmental education and secondary science instruction from the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University.

Karen Geller, EdD, is associate professor at Immaculata University, teaching supervision and evaluation and the principalship. She is also principal of grades 5 and 6 at Upper Merion Area Middle School, a 2010 National School of Character and a 2011 Johns Hopkins National Network of Partnership School. Dr. Geller is a leader in the character education field and focuses on the integration of character throughout the curriculum.

Larissa Giordano, MA, is a fourth-grade teacher at Nathan Hale School in New Haven, Connecticut. She has been a teacher in that urban school system for nine years. As a teacher, her greatest passion is nurturing her students to feel confident about themselves, as individuals and as learners, as they work toward realizing their full potential. Recently, under the guidance of Dr. Fay Brown, she has been working with other teachers in the district, helping them to integrate knowledge of the six developmental pathways into all aspects of their classroom practices.

Colette Gosselin, EdD, is assistant professor and coordinator of secondary education at the College of New Jersey where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in educational foundations. She has over fourteen years of experience teaching in higher education and five years as a high school biology teacher. She has an EdD in the social and philosophical foundations of education from Rutgers University. Her areas of research include both the relationship between emotions and learning and preservice teacher development.

Maughn Gregory, PhD, JD, is associate professor of educational foundations at Montclair State University, where he is faculty advisor to the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children and Director of the Classroom Inquiry Project in Newark. He publishes and teaches in the areas of philosophy of education, pragmatism, philosophy for children, gender and education, and critical thinking. Dr. Gregory regularly conducts workshops on these topics throughout the United States and around the world.

Michelle Grimley, LSW, is assistant director for GEAR UP at the School District of Philadelphia. She has worked in programmatic and administrative roles in Philadelphia nonprofits, AmeriCorps, and the school district since 1998. She earned a BA in sociology, social psychology, and education from Lehigh University, and a master’s in social services from Bryn Mawr.

Doug Grove, PhD, is director of the Graduate Program in Education and associate professor of education at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California. Dr. Grove has taught English, business, and physical education in public and private school settings. He has worked as a high school vice principal, coordinator of a county office assessment unit, and a school board member. Dr. Grove has broad experience in educational evaluation including management of numerous state and federal grants, as well as many other local education agency–based initiatives on the West Coast. Dr. Grove has been lead evaluator on five Partnerships in Character Education grants funded by the US Department of Education and its Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

Scott Hall, MAT, teaches sixth grade at a middle school in Columbus, Ohio, where he coaches football and wrestling and serves on the district Wellness Committee. He is certified in Taekwondo (black belt) and personal training. In addition to eight years of middle school experience, Hall has competed successfully in power lifting for fifteen years. He has over thirty years of weight training, fitness, and nutrition experience. He is one of the founders of the Core5 After School Program, which focuses on improving academics, fitness, nutrition, social and emotional wellness, and parent/community involvement. Hall received his bachelor of science in education from Otterbein College in 1997 and his master of arts in teaching from Marygrove College in 2005.

Heidi L. Hallman, PhD, is assistant professor at the University of Kansas where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in English education. She earned a PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and prior to working in higher education, she taught high school English.

Deborah Hecht, PhD, is an educational psychologist and senior principal investigator at the Center for Advanced Study in Education, part of the Graduate Center for the City University of New York. Dr. Hecht is engaged in research, evaluation, and development of educational innovations and reform efforts with a focus in the areas of service learning, character education, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). She has worked with K–16 schools and educators to bring about systemic change and has been on numerous national committees that seek to connect research and practice in meaningful ways. She was a founding board member of the nationally recognized Hoboken Charter School.

Ann Higgins-D’Alessandro, PhD, is director of the Applied Developmental Psychology Graduate Program in the Psychology Department and faculty coordinator of the new multidisciplinary Center for Community-Engaged Research (CCER) of Fordham University. Her major research focus is on schools and workplaces as contexts for adolescent and adult social-moral and identity development, included authoring the School Culture Scale (1997) that has been used in several European and Pacific Rim countries. Her career began conducting action research on Just Community schools (Lawrence Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Education, 1989). She has served as principal investigator on over a dozen grants and most recently completed two US Department of Education four-year evaluation projects of the Community of Caring intervention in New York and New Jersey schools. In 2002 she coedited Science for Society, an SRCD New Directions volume. Consulting with the US Department of Education, she coproduced Mobilizing for Evidence-Based Character Education (2007) to promote effective educator/evaluator partnering. She consults widely on the development of school-specific civic, democratic, and moral education interventions and is a member of the National School Climate Council. In 2000, Dr. Higgins-D’Alessandro received the highest award of the Association for Moral Education for her research and service to the profession.

Jennie Hine is a PATHS coach consultant working in Birmingham, UK. She has eleven years of experience working within the education system, and her work has encompassed teaching in mainstream classrooms as well as within a specialist social-emotional unit, working as assistant educational psychologist and also as inclusion manager within a mainstream school. She has a degree in psychology and a postgraduate certificate of education from the University of Birmingham.

Cheryl Hopkins has worked in local government in the United Kingdom for over thirty years, commencing her career as a psychiatric social worker. She worked for the Birmingham City Council from 2004 until recently, leading an ambitious and widely endorsed early intervention, long-term strategy and transformation program called Brighter Futures, a strategic process for innovative service design that links comprehensive data, systematic reviews of evidence targeted to specific outcomes, and evaluation methods including randomized control trials. Each innovation engaged all stakeholders and resulted in a financial return on the investment. Cheryl retired from Birmingham City Council at the end of 2011 and now works as an independent consultant.

Anne-Marie Hoxie, PhD, is director of research at The After-School Corporation (TASC). She is responsible for conducting research on issues that strengthen after-school and expanded learning time fields and overseeing all of TASC’s program evaluation activities. Dr. Hoxie holds a PhD in developmental psychology from Fordham University and has researched and evaluated youth health interventions, school-based initiatives, and OST (out-of-school time) programs for over ten years.

Jill Jacobi-Vessels, PhD, is assistant professor in early childhood education in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville. She earned her PhD in teaching and learning and an MEd in interdisciplinary early childhood education at the University of Louisville. Her experience includes five years at the University of Louisville Early Childhood Research Center and fifteen years directing and coordinating child development centers, children’s programs, and family support programs.

Patricia Jennings, MEd, PhD, is senior director of the education initiative at the Garrison Institute and research assistant professor in human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University. Her current research focuses on developing and testing interventions designed to reduce stress and promote social and emotional skills among teachers. Her background includes over twenty years as an educator and teacher educator.

Amy Johnston, MA, has been in the field of education for thirty-one years. She taught high school, served as a middle school counselor, and has been in administration for the past seventeen years at Francis Howell Middle School. She has spoken on her character education leadership journey to educators at conferences in five states. Her efforts have earned her the St. Louis Area Middle School Principal of the Year Award and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Character Education. In 2007, her school was named a Missouri School of Character, and in 2008 Francis Howell Middle was named a National School of Character. She has master’s degrees in both education administration and counseling.

Bridget Kerrigan is program manager for the Troubled Families Programme at Birmingham City Council. The program takes a holistic approach to supporting families with complex needs, which includes a focus on evidence-based early intervention programs. She has worked in local government for over twelve years and earlier served in various policy roles within the disability sector. She is a graduate of the University of Birmingham in public and social policy management and holds a master’s degree in public sector management.

Yael Kidron, PhD, is senior research analyst at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). She specializes in research reviews, translation of research into practice, and social-emotional learning. She currently serves as project director and task leader of projects that aim to inform practice of state, district, and school administrators and educators, including the U. S. Department of Education Doing What Works Initiative and the National High School Center. She received her PhD in psychology from the University of Haifa, Israel.

Denise Koebcke, MEd, has been an educator for nearly twenty years in the Valparaiso Community School System in Northwest Indiana. She founded Team LEAD LLC, a bystander leadership program for schools, community agencies, and businesses, and is currently Team LEAD consultant in multiple school systems across the Midwest. She earned her BA in education from Purdue University and her master’s degree from Indiana State University.

Tony Lacey is head teacher of Arden Primary School, a large, inner-city Birmingham, UK, school serving a largely Muslim population in a deprived area of the city. This is his second headship, and he has been at the school since 2005. He has always had an interest in positive behavior management, ensuring that children develop an understanding of empathy, consequences, and an ability to articulate feelings. He is on the steering group for the Primary Behavior Strategy, which aims to ensure that children and schools with behavior issues have the best support to help them succeed. His school was one of the original schools to pilot the PATHS social-emotional learning curriculum.

Jennifer Lane, MAT, is a teacher at Lake Riviera Middle School for eighth-grade science and coadvisor of the National Junior Honor Society. She has taught for eight years at the middle school level, where she demonstrates her passion for character education, service learning, and prosocial education. She earned her master of arts in teaching in elementary education from Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey.

Linda Lantieri, MA, has been in the field of education for over forty years in a variety of capacities—classroom teacher, elementary assistant principal, and middle school director in East Harlem, New York City, as well as education faculty member in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, Hunter College. Currently, she is director of the Inner Resilience Program and cofounder and senior program advisor for the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Her most recent book is Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children (2008).

Ann E. Larson, PhD, is vice dean of the College of Education and Human Development and professor in middle and secondary education at the University of Louisville. Her scholarship currently focuses on assessment and accountability in educator preparation, teacher preparation, teacher development, and curriculum studies. Dr. Larson earned her PhD in curriculum and instruction from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Minna Lehtonen, BSc (Hons.), is a research assistant at the Social Research Unit Dartington. She has worked as special needs teaching assistant and on the implementation of evidence-based programs in Birmingham, UK. She earned a BSc (Hons.) in psychology from the University of Bedfordshire, UK.

Deborah Leong, PhD, is professor emerita of psychology at the Metropolitan State College of Denver. She is director and codeveloper of the Tools of the Mind curriculum project designed to promote self-regulation and executive function skills in young children. She has written with Elena Bodrova on the Vygotskian approach to early education and on intentional make-believe play. She has also written with Oralie McAfee on child assessment. She is a research fellow at the National Institute of Early Education Research at Rutgers. She has a PhD in educational psychology, a BA in psychology from Stanford University, and an MEd from Harvard University.

Donna Letchford has a wide-ranging background working as a primary school teacher, an early childhood educator, and in adult education as a parent worker. After thirteen years with the Roots of Empathy organization, she has delivered over twenty Roots of Empathy programs and worked extensively as a trainer and mentor, nationally and internationally.

Ricardo Lopez, MSW, is the Healthy Start coordinator and psychiatric social worker for Farmdale Elementary School, El Sereno Middle School, and Wilson High School in Northeast Los Angeles. Mr. Lopez has been a social worker for seventeen years and has worked for various government agencies (Los Angeles County Probation, the Department of Children and Family Services, and the Los Angeles Unified School District) and nonprofit social service agencies. Mr. Lopez has specialized in providing therapeutic prevention and intervention services for young boys and men. Mr. Lopez obtained his master of social work degree and Pupil Personnel Services credential from California State University, Long Beach. Mr. Lopez earned his undergraduate degree from Whittier College, Whittier, California.

Vonda Martin is coordinator for the Youth Service Center in the Spencer County Public School District, Kentucky. She engages the middle and high schools in community-wide collaborative groups that focus on reducing disparities and meeting the needs of the district’s children and families, especially low-income families.

Jennifer McElgunn is a primary school teacher in Toronto, Ontario, who has had the Roots of Empathy program in her grade 3 class for three years. She has over sixteen years of teaching experience in K–5 settings. She earned a BA in sociology and psychology from Trent University and a BEd from the University of Maine.

Tinia R. Merriweather is completing the PhD program in applied developmental psychology at Fordham University. Her dissertation examines equity of opportunities for students in classroom-level processes and associated teacher characteristics. With sixteen years of classroom experience, she has taught at all levels from elementary through graduate school, but her passion is middle school. She currently teaches in the Ethics Department and works on diversity initiatives at Ethical Culture Fieldstone School. Tinia holds a BA from Spelman College and two MA’s from Fordham University and Teachers College, Columbia University.

Johncarlos M. Miller, currently high school principal at Weaver Academy in Guilford County Schools (Greensboro, NC), has served the district for fifteen years as teacher and administrator at the middle and high school levels. He has provided professional development on the power of character education and its impact on school culture and student achievement locally, regionally, and nationally. He earned a BS in chemistry secondary education from North Carolina A&T State University and an MS in school administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he is currently pursuing the EdD in educational leadership and cultural foundations.

Laura Morana, EdD, began her career as a teacher, eventually serving as supervisor of special education, middle school principal, director of staff development, and assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and in 2006 she assumed the role of superintendent of the Red Bank Borough School System. Her leadership has focused on pre-K through twelfth-grade curriculum improvements, fostering partnerships between school districts and local businesses and colleges, and championing the critical link between home and school. She earned a BA in education from Kean University, an MA in special education, and an EdD in educational leadership from Rowan University.

Jacqueline Norris, EdD, is professor and coordinator of educational leadership at the College of New Jersey. She has more than forty years of experience in the field of education having been a teacher at both the elementary and secondary levels and principal and assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in the K–12 setting. Dr. Norris is passionate about her commitment to ensuring that school leaders understand the critical role that prosocial skills and decision making play in creating effective schools for the twenty-first century. She earned her doctorate at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Judith Nuss, MA, is an independent consultant for CASEL and AIR presently working in Cleveland, Austin, and Sacramento school districts. She is former director of social and emotional learning in Harrisburg School District, PA, where she led districtwide implementation of SEL. She has over thirty years of experience in teaching and school leadership as well as research experience with Penn State University Prevention Research Center. Judy earned her BS in elementary education from Temple University and her MA in community psychology and social change from Pennsylvania State University.

Mary Utne O’Brien, PhD, (deceased) was a research professor of psychology and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She joined the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) as associate director in 1999. Working closely with CASEL president Roger Weissberg, she quickly became a key leader not just for CASEL but for the entire field of social and emotional learning (SEL). In 2004 she was appointed as CASEL’s executive director. When CASEL incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 2007, she became vice president for strategic initiatives, responsible for strategic planning, development of collaborative partnerships, and exploration of new projects. She received her doctorate in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Monique Ohashi, MEd, is a first-grade teacher at Farmdale Elementary School, an International Baccalaureate World School in Los Angeles, California. Her eleven years of teaching experience have enabled her to continue to promote social justice and international-mindedness at the elementary level. She obtained her teaching credentials and master of education degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Riverside (UCR), where she graduated cum laude.

David Osher, PhD, is vice president at American Institutes for Research (AIR). He is a nationally recognized expert in prevention research; social-emotional learning; youth development; the social and emotional conditions for learning, teaching, and healthy development; and culturally competent interventions. Dr. Osher consults with federal, state, and local officials and with offices in the US Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice and has served on multiple interagency work groups with federal officials. Dr. Osher serves on numerous expert panels (e.g., Preschool and Elementary School Assessment Workgroup and research advisory boards for America’s Promise and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning).

Kristen Pelster, SEd, an educator for nineteen years, is administrator at Ridgewood Middle School in the Fox School District of St. Louis Missouri. In 2000, she took over a failing middle school and used character education to achieve four “Top Ten Most Improved” awards for test scores in Missouri and an 84 percent decrease in discipline referrals. She and her school have received numerous state and national awards, including Inspire by Example (state education department) and National School of Character (Character Education Partnership). Kristen earned a BA in music education from Missouri Baptist University and a master’s and specialist degree in education administration from the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Laura J. Pinger, MS, is senior outreach specialist at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. With over twenty years of teaching experience in Madison public schools and twelve years of teaching affiliation with the UW Health Center for Mindfulness, Laura develops and teaches secular mindfulness-based curricula to educators and students as part of translational research investigating attention, emotion regulation, and well-being.

Ann Marie R. Power has been director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame since 2000. She received her PhD in the sociology of education at the University of Notre Dame. Her publications focus on educational attainment, social capital in schools, social responsibility among youth, and the moral culture of schools.

F. Clark Power has been teaching at the University of Notre Dame since 1982. He is professor in the Program of Liberal Studies (PLS), concurrent professor in the Department of Psychology, a member of the graduate faculty in education, and director of the Play Like Champion Character Education through Sports Program. He received his EdD in human development from Harvard University and wrote his thesis under the direction of Lawrence Kohlberg. His publications focus on moral development and education, civic engagement, and school climate.

Joan Elizabeth Reubens works as a bullying prevention specialist for Pinellas County Schools, Florida. She works with the district’s Policy against Bullying and Harassment and the Teen Dating Violence and Abuse Policy, in addition to teaching workshops on prevention and intervention strategies and being a Nationally Certified Olweus trainer. Joan coauthored Bullying . . . Not in This School: 40 Weeks of Bullying Prevention Activities. Joan has a bachelor’s degree in behavior disorders from the University of South Florida and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University.

Howard Rodstein, director of the Scarsdale Alternative School and a tenth-grade English teacher, has worked in Scarsdale, New York, public schools since 1978. His “Just Community” school is based on an application of Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development to six core structures. He is also an Annenburg Institute–trained Critical Friends Group coach, training teacher-leaders in suburban New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Brandeis University and holds two master’s degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University, and Bank Street College of Education.

Robert W. Roeser, PhD, MSW, is professor of psychology and human development in the Department of Psychology at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. He received his BA with honors in psychology from Cornell University and his PhD from the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan. In 2005, he was a US Fulbright scholar in India, and from 1999 to 2004, he was a William T. Grant Foundation faculty scholar. Dr. Roeser’s research focuses on school as a primary cultural context of adolescent development and on professional development of public school teachers. His current research is focused on how mindfulness training can be used to cultivate the positive development of adolescents and teachers alike.

Judy Rosen retired as a teacher from the Scarsdale, New York, school system in 2007, where she served ten years as a Scarsdale Alternative School teacher and fifteen years in Scarsdale High School. She previously taught at three other high schools in New York State and Pittsburgh. Rosen taught social studies and team taught in several innovative interdisciplinary courses, including civic education with an English teacher and a guidance counselor, American studies with an English teacher, and a health course called “Mind-Body” with a science teacher.

Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, PhD, is associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. For more than twenty years, Kim’s research has focused on the social and emotional learning (SEL) and development of children and adolescents. Her research has particular emphasis on identifying processes and mechanisms that foster children’s positive human qualities such as empathy, altruism, and resiliency, and school-based promotion of SEL. Following her work as a middle and high school teacher, Kim received her master’s degree from the University of Chicago and her PhD from the University of Iowa.

Alesha D. Seroczynski, PhD, is a research fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame and founder and director of Reading for Life, a character education diversion program for juvenile offenders. She has over twenty years of experience with delinquent and at-risk youth, including internships at the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, Indiana; Madison Center, Indiana’s largest community mental health center; and the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh. Alesha earned her MA in counseling psychology and her PhD in developmental psychology from the University of Notre Dame.

Christine Sherretz, EdD, is assistant professor at the University of Louisville, where she primarily teaches reading courses and works as university liaison at a local elementary school. She has over twenty years of teaching experience in P–5 settings and in higher education. She has an EdD in curriculum and instruction, with emphasis in instructional improvement, from Georgia Southern University.

Christopher E. Smith, MA, is program director of evaluation services at The After-School Corporation (TASC), where he is responsible for managing TASC’s external evaluation of 21st Century Community Learning Centers. He is pursuing his doctorate in applied developmental psychology at Fordham University. He has researched and evaluated out-of-school time (OST) science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs.

Frank J. Snyder, PhD, MPH, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Prevention and Community Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. His research focuses on the complex array of factors that influence youth development and risk behaviors. He earned a PhD in public health with emphasis in health promotion and behavior from Oregon State University, an MPH in community health from Idaho State University, and a BS in nutritional sciences from Michigan State University.

Susan B. Stillman, EdD, is a counselor educator at Northern Arizona University and is on the graduate faculties in educational leadership at Fielding Graduate University and the School of Education at Northcentral University. She also is currently chair of the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Special Interest Group (SIG) American Educational Research Association, coeditor of School Counseling Research and Practice, a member of the Arizona School Counselor Association (AZSCA) Research Committee, and reviewer for the Grounded Theory Review.

Betty Waters Straub, EdD, is director of research for the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Science at the University of Louisville, where she holds a faculty position in health education and has taught since 1982. She served as director for the national Character Education and Civic Engagement Technical Assistance Center (2004–2010) for the US Department of Education. She earned her doctorate in education in student development and higher education administration, her master of arts in teaching, and her bachelor’s in health promotion at the University of Louisville.

Mike Swartz is currently superintendent of schools for the School District of Jefferson (Wisconsin). He has served as teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal, athletic director, assistant superintendent of schools, and superintendent of schools during his forty-three years in public education. He earned a BS in education from Western Michigan University and an MS degree in school administration and leadership from Central Michigan University.

Sandy Swartz became volunteer coordinator of the School District of Jefferson’s (Wisconsin) character education initiative by agreeing to assist the district for six months to get the initiative off the ground. Nine years later, she continues to serve as coordinator of a program that reaches into the entire community, in addition to five schools. She is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Philanthropy and attended Western Michigan University and Alma College in Michigan.

Janet E. Thompson, MA, is director of the Early Childhood Laboratory at the Center for Child and Family Studies at the University of California, Davis. As an early childhood educator, her interests focus especially on the growth of social and emotional competency and its contributions to early learning. With Ross Thompson, she was primary author of Preschool Learning Foundations and Preschool Curriculum Frameworks for Social-Emotional Development recently adopted by the California Department of Education. She earned her BA from Occidental College and her MA from the University of Michigan.

Ross A. Thompson, PhD, is distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, where he directs the Social and Emotional Development Lab. The research of the lab focuses on development of emotional understanding, conscience and prosocial behavior, empathy, and other constructive social capacities in the early years. He also works on the application of developmental science to problems in child and family policy. He earned an AB in psychology from Occidental College and AM and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan.

Jan Urbanski, EdD, is director of the Special Projects Office for Pinellas County Schools in Largo, Florida, where she has supervised the Safe and Drug-Free Schools office and held other positions since 1991. She is technical assistance consultant and national trainer for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program for Clemson University and has cowritten two books and numerous articles on bullying prevention. Dr. Urbanski holds a doctorate in educational leadership with a focus on bullying prevention and school connectedness, a specialist degree in educational leadership, and a master’s in education, all from the University of South Florida, and a bachelor’s in elementary education from Eastern Connecticut State College.

Dorothy J. Veith serves as director of marketing and communications for the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. She has worked at the university for more than fourteen years, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Philip Vincent, EdD, is director of the Character Development Group and a partner with Multi-Dimensional Education Inc. A former teacher and school administrator, Dr. Vincent has worked for fifteen years in numerous school districts in the United States and Canada on enhancing, evaluating, and developing comprehensive character education initiatives. He has also authored, coauthored, or edited thirty books published in the United States and Australia. He earned his doctorate in education from North Carolina State University.

Becky Wilson is director for the Family Resource Center in the Spencer County Public School District in Kentucky. She engages the two elementary schools in community-wide collaborative groups that focus on reducing disparities and meeting the needs of the district’s children and families, especially low-income families.

Abby C. Winer, ABD, is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Davis, with the Social and Emotional Development Lab. She earned her AB in psychology with distinction from Georgetown University. Her current work involves studying a variety of parent–child relational influences on individual differences in young children’s prosocial behavior and motivations. Having worked as both a child-care researcher and provider, she is committed to applications of developmental science to early education programs.

J. Carmelo Zamora has been an elementary school teacher for almost eighteen years, currently at Farmdale Elementary School in Los Angeles. He has a bachelor’s degree in literature from Occidental College and a master’s degree in education from National University. His educational philosophy includes listening and working with school staff and the community. His educational goal is to nurture critical thinkers and lifelong learners who care about real-world issues. Presently, he is in his second year working in a Spanish/English fifth-grade dual-language immersion classroom.