Advisory Board
Angeles Arrien
Founder and President, Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research and a Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences Dr. Arrien’s research and teaching have focused on values and beliefs shared by humanity cross-culturally, and on the integration and application of multi-cultural wisdoms in contemporary settings. She teaches universal components of leadership skills, communication, healthcare, and education. Her work reveals how indigenous wisdoms are relevant in our families, professional lives, and our relationship with the Earth. She is the author of The Four-Fold Way™: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary, published by HarperCollins, San Francisco and Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them, winner of the 1993 Benjamin Franklin Award.Alexander W. Astin
Founding Director, Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA Dr. Astin is Allan M. Cartter Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at UCLA and is the author of 20 books and some 300 other publications in the field of higher education. Dr. Astin has been a recipient of awards for outstanding research from 10 national associations; a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1967-68); and a recipient of eleven honorary degrees. The Journal of Higher Education has identified Dr. Astin as the most frequently-cited author in the field of higher education. In 1985 readers of Change magazine selected him as the person "most admired for creative, insightful thinking" in the field of higher education. Dr. Astin is currently principal investigator (with H. S. Astin) on a national study of spiritual development among undergraduates at 230 higher education institutions. His latest book is Mindworks: Becoming More Conscious in an Unconscious World.Joan Borysenko
President, Mind/Body Health Sciences Dr. Borysenko is trained as a medical scientist and is also a licensed psychologist. She received her doctorate from the Harvard Medical School where she also completed post-doctoral fellowships in cancer cell biology, behavioral medicine, and psychoneuroimmunology. She was the co-founder and former director of the Mind/Body clinical programs at the Beth Israel/Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a former Instructor in Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. A pioneer in integrative medicine, her work encompasses mind/body medicine, life balance, creativity, women’s issues, relationship-centered healing and spirituality. Her popular column, Staying Centered, appears monthly in Prevention magazine. She is the author of eleven books.Peter Cobb
Consultant & Former Executive Director, Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE) Peter Cobb has spent his life in independent education. He attended Moses Brown School in Providence, RI. He taught religion and served as Dean of Students at The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York and Head of Upper School at the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas. He spent fifteen years as the headmaster of the Nichols School in Buffalo, New York and of Pace Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. He served for six years as the Executive Director of the Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education. He is the editor of the book Gateways to Spirituality: Pre-school through Grade Twelve published by Peter Lang in 2005. Peter is widely regarded as a speaker and facilitator on issues of the moral climate of schools and the moral and spiritual education of students.Dee Dickinson
CEO & Founder, New Horizons for Learning Dee has been a school administrator and has taught at all levels from elementary school through university. She has produced several series for educational television and has produced nine international conferences on education. Dee serves on a number of local, national, and international boards including the University of Washington's College of Education, KCTS TV, People of America Foundation, National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, Teachers Without Borders, Child Research Net (Japan), and The Learning Forum/SuperCamp. She is a Fellow of the George Lucas Educational Foundation and of the International Corporate Learning Association. She is an internationally recognized speaker, author and consultant to educational organizations.Maurice Elias
Professor, Psychology, Rutgers University & Leadership Team Vice Chair, CASEL Maurice’s latest books include Emotionally Intelligent Parenting (2000), Raising Emotionally Intelligent Teenagers (2002), Building Learning Communities with Character: How to Integrate Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (ASCD, 2002), and Bullying, Peer Harassment, and Victimization in the Schools: The Next Generation of Prevention (Haworth, 2004).Jeannette Gerzon
Organization Development Consultant Jeannette Gerzon is an Organizational Consultant, coach, and facilitator. Her work includes meeting facilitation, individual and team coaching, consulting services, and teaching communications skills and leadership and supervisory competencies. She is a licensed psychologist and received her doctorate from Harvard University. AT MIT she has held the positions of Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Institute Advisor on Pre-professional Education. Her current appointment at MIT is Organization Development Consultant. She works on behalf of both for- and non-profit organizations and divides her time between MIT and independent consulting and teaching.Julie Glover
Organizational Development Consultant Julie has 25 years of program development and executive experience in non-profit, human service organizations. She was co-founder and Program Director of The Door, a large, multiservice youth development program for adolescents in New York City. Julie was awarded the Temple Award for Creative Altruism by The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Julie currently consults with institutes and foundations to design, convene and facilitate conferences and gatherings relating to issues of spirituality, service, community and the emerging wisdom society.Mark T. Greenberg
Director, Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development, Penn State University Mark conducts research on the effectiveness of innovative models of preventive intervention, including the effectiveness of school-based curricula for improving the social, emotional and cognitive competence of elementary-aged children. He is also an investigator for the Fast Track Prevention Program, a comprehensive program (focusing on children, families, and youth) that aims to prevent violence and delinquency in adolescents. Additionally, he is working to develop an understanding of how risk and protective factors operate to place children at risk for aggression and other conduct problems.Tobin Hart
Associate Professor of Psychology, State University of West Georgia & Founder & Board Chair, The Childspirit Institute Childspirt is a nonprofit educational and research hub dedicated to understanding and nurturing the spiritual world of children. He currently serves as associate professor of psychology at the State University of West Georgia. His teaching and research centers on the activity of knowing and examines consciousness, spirituality, psychotherapy, and education. Tobin’s two latest books are The Secret Spiritual World of Children and From Information to Transformation: Education for the Evolution of Consciousness.Mutima Imani
Consultant and Trainer, Simplexity Mutima is dedicated to creating positive solutions and effective training for organizations. Her areas of expertise are organizational development, management training, and diversity training. Mutima is widely known for providing emergency intervention and conflict resolution services particularly where incidents are racially motivated. Additionally, she is the President of the California Displaced Homemaker Network, a nonprofit women's organization concerned about self- sufficiency and economic issues for women. Ms. Imani conducts women empowerment workshops and has traveled with African American Women on Tour as the facilitator for the Women’s Rite of Passage Program. She designs spiritual healing retreats and empowers women to work together for the betterment of their families, churches and communities.Janice Jackson
Lecturer on Education, Senior Associate for the Executive Education Leadership Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education Janice is a lecturer in Educational Leadership and Organizations at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Jackson is also a faculty member in the Leadership for Change Program in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Prior to coming to the Harvard Graduate School of Education she was an assistant professor at Boston College in the Lynch School of Education. She entered higher education after serving as the Deputy Superintendent for the Boston Public Schools. During the first term of the Clinton Administration she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education for the U. S. Department of Education. She also served as Acting Assistant Secretary for the same organization. Dr. Jackson has held several positions with the Milwaukee Public Schools in Wisconsin. She has been a consultant on issues related to the reform of urban schools.Susan Keister
Author, Speaker, Advisor, and Facilitator Susan has over 25 years experience in international curriculum and professional development in the areas of social and emotional learning, character education, positive prevention, and service-learning. For over twenty years, she led the development of the acclaimed K-12 Lions-Quest programs, which have been awarded CASEL SELECT and a CSAP Model Program designation. She currently serves as the international program and professional development specialist for the Service-Learning Life Skills Network and Lions Clubs International Foundation and leads the Lions-Quest international training team. She works with educators and programs in over 22 countries, advises major national education organizations, and is a Fellow of the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan.Linda Lantieri
Director, Inner Resilience Program Fulbright Scholar, keynote speaker, and internationally known expert in social and emotional learning and conflict resolution, Linda Lantieri, serves as Director of The Inner Resilience Program, co-founder of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) and is one of the founding board members of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). With 40 years of experience in education as a teacher and director of a middle school in East Harlem, and faculty member at Hunter College in New York City, Linda Lantieri has shown a lifetime of commitment to enriching the daily lives of adults and children alike. She is the coauthor of Waging Peace in Our Schools, editor of Schools with Spirit: Nurturing the Inner Lives of Children and Teachers and author of Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children.Michael Lerner
Founder and President, Commonweal Institute Michael Lerner, Ph.D., is President and founder of Commonweal. His interests include mind-body health, with a special interest in cancer; high-risk children and young people; and the architecture of an environmentally sustainable future. Lerner is the founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1965 and his Ph.D. in political science from Yale in 1971. After serving as an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science at Yale Graduate School and Yale Medical School, Lerner was named a founding associate of the Carnegie Council on Children. In 1973 he founded Full Circle, a residential treatment center for children with learning and behavioral disorders in Marin County. In 1976 he founded Commonweal. In 1983 he received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for his contributions to public health, and in 1990 was named a United States-Japan Leadership Fellow. In 1988-90, he served as Special Consultant to the Office of Technology Assessment for its landmark study, Unconventional Cancer Treatments. He also serves as President of the Jenifer Altman Foundation.Thomas Lickona
Director, Center for the 4th and 5th Rs (Respect and Responsibility) In addition to directing the Center for the 4th and 5th Rs, Dr. Thomas Lickona is a developmental psychologist and Professor of Education at the State University of New York at Cortland, where he has done award-winning work in teacher education. He has also been a visiting professor at Boston and Harvard Universities. A past president of the Association for Moral Education, Dr. Lickona serves on the Board of Directors of the Character Education Partnership and the advisory councils of Character Counts Coalition and Medical Institute for Sexual Health. Dr. Lickona is a frequent consultant to schools on character education and a frequent speaker at conferences for teachers, parents, religious educators, and other groups concerned about the moral development of young people. He has lectured across the United States and around the world on the subject of fostering character development in the school and home. He is also the author of Educating for Character, which has been called "the bible of the character education movement”Lynnaea Lumbard
Transformational Psychologist, Ordained Interfaith Minister, Wilderness Guide, and Writer For over thirty years, Lynnaea has been a workshop conductor in the field of depth psychology and conscious evolution. In 1986, she co-founded Temenos Associates in San Francisco, offering a wide range of psycho-spiritual workshops in the Bay Area, New England, New York and Washington, D.C. In 1995, she co-founded Naos Foundation with her husband, Rick Paine, guiding wilderness quests and co-creating a four-year Mystery Training based on the Native American Medicine Wheel. She is a community weaver, a social change catalyst and a spiritual and environmental activist currently working through the Threshold Foundation, One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, the Archives and Research Center on the campus of Pacifica Graduate Institute, and the Tipping Point Network. She shares her time between Whidbey Island, Washington, and Cortes Island, British Columbia.Ron Miller
Founder & President, Foundation for Educational Renewal A leading historian and commentator on alternative education Ron Miller, Ph.D., has been studying and writing about the history and philosophy of educational alternatives for more than 25 years. He has written or edited ten books, started two journals and an alternative school, spoken at conferences on several continents, and been involved in teacher education. He is editor of AERO's magazine Education Revolution and founder of the journal “Paths of Learning” which explores alternative perspectives on teaching, learning, and human development.Derek Peterson
International Child/Youth Advocate, Institute for Community and Adolescent Resilience Derek Peterson is dedicated to increasing the health and well being of children and youth worldwide by supporting them to create and sustain environments rich in developmental opportunities and conditions. Peterson has been called “America’s Youth Development Rock Star” and his work is written into the No Child Left Behind legislation. His charge is to increase caring and connected schools and students that lead to greater success and academic achievement. He served as a child/youth advocate in Alaska, where his work impacted, in some way, every school district in Alaska, by increasing student achievement and reducing risk behaviors among teens. In 2000 he was honored by the Alaska Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Community as the “Prevention Professional of the Year.” In the following year, he was presented with the “Educator of the Year” by the Alaska Principal’s Association.Lee Rush
Executive Director, justCommunity, Inc. Lee is the founder of justCommunity, Inc. and has served as its Executive Director since 1999. He served in senior management positions from 1986 to 1999 as the Director of Human Resources for LifeQuest, a mid-size company specializing in senior healthcare services and as Executive Director of LifeQuest Foundation. He held various positions as an administrator, counselor and teacher in an alternative school and day-treatment setting from 1979 to 1986. Lee graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminology and Temple University where he earned a Masters of Education Degree. Lee served as the Executive Director of the National Student Assistance Association (NSAA) from 1995 to 2008. NSAA is the country's sole advocacy organization devoted solely to enhancing the development of Student Assistance Programs thoughout the United States.Pamela Seigle
Executive Director, Courage & Renewal Northeast Pamela Seigle M.S., M.A. is Executive Director of the regional center for Courage & Renewal Northeast based at Wellesley College. She is the founder of the Open Circle Social Competency Program and co-author of the Open Circle Curriculum, a social-emotional learning program based at Wellesley College and currently being implemented in over 285 elementary schools in the northeast. At the core of the program is the belief in the importance of relationships to both social-emotional and academic learning. Pamela is a former classroom teacher, school psychologist and staff developer, particularly interested in the challenge of building, respectful, caring communities in schools and society at large. She is an activist in the Boston community and serves on several boards.David Sluyter, Ed.D
Former President and CEO of the Fetzer Institute Dave is recently retired from and continues to serve as a consultant to the Fetzer Institute, a nonprofit operating foundation with the mission of “fostering an awareness of the power of love and forgiveness.” This mission reflects the conviction that efforts to address the world’s crucial issues must go beyond political, economic and social strategies to their psychological and spiritual roots. Prior to his retirement, Dave worked in a number of capacities at the Fetzer Institute, including program officer, vice president, president and CEO and senior advisor. Two themes that ran through his work are the role of social and emotional learning in K-12 education and the role of relationships in health care and in organizational life. Dave received his doctorate in counseling psychology from Western Michigan University. His publications include journal articles, book chapters and Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Educational Implications (coeditor).Dan Spinner
Vice President & CEO, Royal Roads University FoundationJohn Steiner
Netweaver, Activist, Organizer, and Philanthropist John’s passion is bringing together people, ideas, projects and money around common cause. He has been a founding member and leader of the Threshold Foundation and a founding member of the Social Venture Network. He is a co-founder of GEMS, Green Economic Movement/Marketing Strategies, which employs entrepreneurial skills to intervene in the market place and is building a consumer/producer movement on behalf of a more ecologically sustainable economy. He is the founder and director of Creative Philanthropy Associates.Peggy Taylor
Co-Founder, Power of Hope Peggy brings rich experience in holistic education, the arts, non-profit organizational management and publishing to her creative work with youth. She is co-author of Chop Wood, Carry Water: A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life and was co-founder of New Age Journal where she was editor-in-chief for fourteen years. Peggy is a creative development specialist with a Masters of Education in creative arts in learning.Roger P. Weissberg
President, CASEL Roger P. Weissberg is a Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also President of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), an international organization committed to making evidence-based social, emotional, and academic learning an essential part of preschool through high school education. For the past three decades, Professor Weissberg has trained scholars and practitioners about innovative ways to design, implement, and evaluate family, school, and community interventions. Roger has authored about 200 publications focusing on preventive interventions with children and adolescents. He has been the President of the American Psychological Association's Society for Community Research and Action and co-chaired an American Psychological Association Task Force on "Prevention: Promoting Strength, Resilience, and Health in Young People." He also received the 2008 "Daring Dozen" award from the George Lucas Educational Foundation for being 1 of 12 people who are reshaping the future of education.