Our Partners
Annaka Harris is the New York Times bestselling author of Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind (HarperCollins, June 2019). She is an editor and consultant for science writers, specializing in neuroscience and physics, and her work has appeared in The New York Times. Annaka is the author of the children’s book I Wonder, a collaborator on the Mindful Games Activity Cards, by Susan Kaiser Greenland, and a volunteer mindfulness teacher for the Inner Kids organization.
Amy Saltzman, MD (creator of The Still Quiet Place) is a holistic physician and mindfulness coach. Her passion is sharing mindfulness with people of all ages, and supporting them in experiencing true well-being and finding flow.
Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College creates knowledge, mobilizes people, and takes action to improve education by embracing a framework called Principled Innovation. Principled Innovation provides an approach for engaging moral, civic, intellectual, and performance character practices as we make decisions and take actions that affect the lives and learning of other people.
Dr. Barbara J. Dray is lead consultant with Transforming Practices in Education, LLC for the advancement of multilingual learners.
Dr. Debora B. Wisneski is John T. Langan Community Chair in Early Childhood Education at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
CASEL, a nonprofit founded in 1994, defined social and emotional learning (SEL) more than two decades ago. Today, CASEL is a trusted source for knowledge about high-quality, evidence-based SEL and collaborates with leading experts and supports districts, schools, and states nationwide to drive research, guide practice, and inform policy.
The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind) transforms higher education through contemplative practice. Founded in 1997, they organize conferences, retreats, and the annual Summer Session on Contemplative Learning in Higher Education; they create and identify useful resources; and they connect a global, multidisciplinary community of educators through our primary initiative, the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education.
The Center on Great Teachers and Leaders is based at American Institutes for Research and funded through a cooperative agreement by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education.
Dr. Chezare A. Warren is an Associate Professor of Equity & Inclusion in Education Policy at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. He has about a decade of professional experience as an urban educator, and is a recipient of numerous recognitions for his scholarship including the 2018 American Educational Research Association Division K “Early Career Award”. Author of two books including Centering Possibility in Black Education (Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 2021), Dr. Warren’s research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals including Urban Education, Race Ethnicity and Education, Educational Researcher, and the Journal of Teacher Education. For more information, visit www.chezarewarren.com
Circle Forward is a resource guide designed to help teachers, administrators, students, and parents incorporate the practice of Circles into the everyday life of the school community with comprehensive step–by–step instructions for how to plan, facilitate, and implement the Circle. It provides over one hundred specific lesson plans for the application of Circles in many areas of school life.
The Center for Restorative Justice offers training and professional development in restorative justice practice for K-12 schools and universities. Also see the book Circle Forward: Building a Restorative School.
Adapted from an activity in the Second Step program, a social-emotional learning curriculum created by Committee for Children. Since 1979, Committee for Children, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has advocated for policies to enhance, gathered research to support, and developed educational programs to advance the safety and well-being of children through social-emotional learning (SEL).
Deborah Farmer Kris is an education journalist, founder of Parenthood365.com, and the author of the “All the Time” picture book series. She also spent 20+ years as a K-12 teacher and administrator. Her bylines include PBS KIDS, NPR’s Mindshift, The Washington Post, Deseret Magazine, Oprah Daily, and Boston Globe Magazine.
Dzung X. Vo, MD is a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine, Co-Founder and Director of the BC Children’s Hospital Centre for Mindfulness, and Division Chief of the Division of Adolescent Health and Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, BC Children’s Hospital and University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the author of The Mindful Teen: Powerful Skills to Help You Handle Stress One Moment at a Time, and teaches mindfulness to adolescents and health care professionals. Learn more at http://mindfulnessforteens.com.
EduMotion: SEL Journeys is a digital learning platform that integrates lessons on diversity, empathy and kindness with movement activities inspired by dances from around the world. EduMotion’s evidence-based curriculum has been used for more than a decade as a strategy to help students develop peer relationships and explore what it means to be a global citizen. Educators can get started by signing up for free dance-of-the-month content and SEL resources on edumotion.com.
Empatico is a global initiative to foster empathy and understanding among students worldwide. A project of Builders, Empatico’s activities, tools, and games are designed to help students and educators develop and strengthen critical thinking and deliberative dialogue skills. By helping to cultivate a generation of thoughtful problem-solvers, Empatico seeks to foster a more empathetic world in which our differences make us stronger.
Facing History and Ourselves is a nonprofit international educational and professional development organization. By integrating the study of history, literature, and human behavior with ethical decision-making and innovative teaching strategies, Facing History enables secondary school teachers to promote students’ historical understanding, critical thinking, and social-emotional learning. As students explore the complexities of history, and make connections to current events, they reflect on the choices they confront today and consider how they can make a difference. www.facinghistory.org
Generation Citizen (GC) works to ensure that every student in the United States receives an effective hands-on civics education, which provides them with the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in our democracy as active citizens. For more information, visit www.generationcitizen.org
Giacomo Bono, Ph.D., is an associate professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who studies positive youth development with an emphasis on prosocial behavior and relationships. His is the co-author, with Jeffrey Froh, of Making Grateful Kids: The Science of Building Character, Character Lab’s Gratitude Playbook, and Thanks! A Strengths-Based Gratitude Curriculum for Tweens and Teens. He is available to give talks and workshops to schools, companies, and non-profits, and can be reached at gbono@csudh.edu.
Giraffe Heroes Project honors compassionate risk-takers who are largely unknown, people who have the courage to stick their necks out for the common good, in the US and around the world. When we tell their stories over social and traditional media, others are moved to stick their necks out too, helping solve significant public problems important to them. As long as there are Giraffe Heroes, there’s hope.
Telling the series of heroes may be the oldest strategy in the world for motivating people into brave, compassionate action—and it works. See www.giraffe.org for books, blogs, curricula, speeches and trainings that can help your school succeed in inspiring students to courageous and compassionate action. Two full curricula, on for K-2, one for young teens, can be downloaded here. Both were created by the Giraffe Heroes Project.
The Global Oneness Project is a free multimedia platform that brings the world’s culture alive in the classroom by using stories as a pedagogical tool for growing minds. Their collection of documentary films, photo essays, and lesson plans highlight cultural, environmental, and social issues with universal themes including our common humanity.
https://www.globalonenessproject.org/
The Ecological Approaches to Social Emotional Learning (EASEL) Laboratory, led by Dr. Stephanie Jones of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, explores the effects of high-quality social-emotional interventions on the development and achievement of children, youth, teachers, parents, and communities.
The Jubilee Centre is a pioneering interdisciplinary research centre focussing on character, virtues and values in the interest of human flourishing, based at the University of Birmingham. The Centre is a leading informant on policy and practice in this area and through its extensive range of projects contributes to a renewal of character virtues in both individuals and societies.
Dr Karen Bohlin is the Director of the Practical Wisdom Project at the Abigail Adams Institute in Cambridge, MA and a thought leader in character education and applied virtue ethics. Her work focuses on teaching leaders to develop the practical wisdom they need to shape formative institutions committed to flourishing and performance. A veteran school leader who has taught at both the secondary and university level, she is also founder and Director Emerita of the LifeCompass Institute for Character and Leadership at Montrose School.
Barbara Whitlock is in her tenth year teaching English and history at Montrose School. She serves as Director of Student Learning & Leadership, English Department and Humanities Coordinator and LifeCompass Institute Fellow. Barbara earned her BA in Political Science and Journalism at Rider University, did graduate work in Political Philosophy at the University of Virginia, and is currently a Kern Family Foundation fellow studying for an MA in Character Education at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) in conjunction with the Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtue.
Dr. Karen Bluth is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a certified instructor of Mindful Self-Compassion, an internationally acclaimed 8-week course created by Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Chris Germer. Dr. Bluth’s research focuses on the roles that self-compassion plays in promoting well-being in youth. She is co-creator of the curriculum Making Friends with Yourself: A Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Teens, the teen adaptation of Mindful Self-Compassion for adults, and author of the book The Self-Compassion Workbook for Teens: Mindfulness and Compassion Skills to Overcome Self-Criticism and Embrace Who You Are (New Harbinger Publishers).
Making Friends with Yourself: A Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Teens, (Bluth & Hobbs), is the teen adaptation of Germer & Neff’s Mindful Self-Compassion program for adults. It has a foundation of mindfulness, and focuses on teaching teens skills of self-compassion, or treating themselves with the same kindness and respect as they treat their good friends. This is accomplished through art, music, games, guided meditations, and hands-on activities. In addition to this 8 week after school program, there is a school version which is formatted to be taught in the classroom.
Kendall Cotton Bronk, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology at the Claremont Graduate University in the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences, where she studies the things that give young people’s lives purpose.
Leading Together, a program from the Center for Courage and Renewal, supports whole school change by bringing the principles and practices of the Courage to Teach® program into schools. This evidence-based professional development program supports whole school change initiatives by strengthening shared leadership, positive relationships, and relational trust in the adult community.
Our mission is to help teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy. Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants. Our program emphasizes social justice and anti-bias. The anti-bias approach encourages children and young people to challenge prejudice and learn how to be agents of change in their own lives. Our Social Justice Standards show how anti-bias education works through the four domains of identity, diversity, justice and action.
Learning to BREATHE (by Patricia Broderick, PhD) is a research-based mindfulness curriculum created for classroom or group settings. L2B is designed to coordinate with curriculum standards for health, developmental guidance or other academic areas in secondary schools. L2B versions exist for younger and older adolescents, as well as for college-age/emerging adults. L2B is being used widely both nationally and internationally and has been published in English (2013, New Harbinger) and Chinese (2016, Acorn Publishers). L2B was researched through a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education (Institute of Education Sciences) and has been studied extensively in educational and clinical settings. Currently, 11 published, peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated its effectiveness, and several more studies are currently underway. L2B has been recognized as one of only four mindfulness programs in the 2015 CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) Secondary Guide that meet research criteria for effective SEL programs.
Mark Bertin, MD is a developmental pediatrician and author of How Children Thrive and Mindful Parenting for ADHD.
Dr. Marvin W. Berkowitz is McDonnell Professor of Character Education and Co-Director of the Center for Character and Citizenship at UMSL. He directs the Leadership Academy in Character Education. Born in Queens NY, he earned his BA in psychology from the SU NY Buffalo, and his Ph.D. in Life-span Developmental Psychology at Wayne State University.
His scholarly focus is in character education and development. He is author of PRIMED for Character Education: Six Design Principles for School Improvement (2021, Spanish translation available), You Can’t Teach Through a Rat: And Other Epiphanies for Educators (2012), Parenting for Good (2005) and more than 100 book chapters, monographs, and journal articles. He is founding co-editor of the Journal of Character Education.
Dr. Berkowitz has received numerous honors, including the Sanford N. McDonnell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Character Education Partnership (2006), the Good Works Award (2010) and the Kuhmerker Career Award (2013) from the Association for Moral Education, and the University of Missouri System’s Thomas Jefferson Professorship (2011).
Millennium School was launched in Fall 2016 as an innovation lab for adolescent developmental science. The school actively partners with professors from several leading universities such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCSF among others, to study and implement transformative learning methodologies. For students, this translates into an engaging educational experience that breaks many molds. Students co-construct their own learning environment, projects, and assessments. They are actively involved in the action research of what works and doesn’t. And nothing drives engagement in middle school like empowering students as architects of their own adventure.
Mindful is a mission-driven non-profit dedicated to inspiring, guiding, and connecting anyone who wants to explore mindfulness—to enjoy better health, more caring relationships, and a more compassionate society. Please visit us at mindful.org or explore our print magazine, online events, courses, social media groups and more.
Mindful Arts in the Classroom (by Andrew Jordan Nance) uses storytelling, theater, and art activities to convey the principles of mindfulness.
Daniel Rechtschaffen is the author of the Mindful Education Workbook, The Way of Mindful Education, and Alphabreaths. He is also the director of The Mindful Education Online Training.
Mindful Littles is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to sparking compassionate action in youth and in communities through engaging service learning experiences and mindful well-being programs that foster resiliency, prosocial behavior, and improved mental health. Programs are in several Northern California communities in the Greater Bay Area and in Butte County, where the devastating 2018 Camp Fire occurred. To learn more, visit mindfullittles.org.
Imagine an entire school — students, teachers and administrators — taking time each morning to turn inward together, listen to a brief mindfulness prompt and world class music. That’s Mindful Music Moments, now in more than 100 K-12 schools, camps, and social service organizations daily and climbing, touching 50,000+ students in a calming and focusing ritual. See the program at work in this PBS NewsHour story from May, 2019: Can Listening to Classical Music Help Kids Keep Calm.
Founded in California’s innovative Bay Area in 2007, Mindful Schools is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has grown to be the largest globally connected community of mindful education professionals. Our vision is for all children to learn in schools that encourage greater awareness, the ability to focus attention, and action based on empathy, kindness, and compassion.
Since 2003, MindUP has been helping children develop the mental fitness necessary to thrive in school and throughout their lives. MindUP is the signature program of The Goldie Hawn Foundation, a not-for-profit organization created in response to the global epidemic of childhood aggression, anxiety, depression and suicide. Based firmly in neuroscience, MindUP gives children the knowledge and tools they need to manage stress, regulate emotions and face the challenges of the 21st century with optimism, resilience and compassion. See www.mindup.org.
Move This World is the leading provider of social emotional learning (SEL) multimedia experiences for PreK-12 students, educators, and families. Each piece of educational content is delivered through short interactive lessons and is grounded in the goal of empowering students to navigate the rapidly-changing realities of their world – both in the classroom and throughout their lives. Designed for implementation that is both impactful and simple, the MTW platform allows educators and families to incorporate SEL into their students’ schedules every day, without planning or prep. The extensive multimedia library provides a robust and engaging daily curriculum- experiences designed to empower students by strengthening the skills that foster wellbeing and establishing a common language among students, educators and families. These multimedia experiences are rooted in creative expression and participatory movement. Move This World has already impacted the lives of over two million students across 42 states. Learn more: movethisworld.com.
Open Circle provides evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum and professional development for elementary schools. This innovative program proactively develops children’s skills for recognizing and managing emotions, empathy, positive relationships and problem solving. Open Circle helps schools build communities where students feel safe, cared for and engaged in learning.
PassageWorks Institute is a nonprofit that supports K-12 educators and families to create inclusive school communities that champion equity, social justice, and academic achievement. Our mission is to collaborate with school communities to become vibrant places of connection, compassion, and excellence.
Patricia (Tish) Jennings is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of social and emotional learning and mindfulness in education and Professor of Education at the Curry School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia. She is the author numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters and several books: Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom, The Trauma-Sensitive Classroom: Building Resilience with Compassionate Teaching, Mindfulness in the Pre-K-5 Classroom: Helping Students Stress Less and Learn More, part of Social and Emotional Learning Solutions, a book series by WW Norton of which she is editor.
PERTS, the Project for Education Research That Scales, is a center at the Stanford University Department of Psychology. PERTS strives to catalyze a more science-based approach towards academic motivation and resilience in America’s schools and colleges so that all students are given the opportunity to develop into avid and effective life-long learners.
Playworks is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit respected for their evidence-informed services and strategic approach to scale. They help schools and youth programs create recess and play environments where every child can join in and believe that all kids should experience the social, emotional, and physical benefits of play.
Imagine if adolescent education was designed for all students to develop lives of meaning and purpose. In 2015 Project Wayfinder was founded at the Stanford d.school to answer this call. We partner with educators to design innovative learning experiences that foster meaningful relationships and guide students to navigate their lives with purpose. With our fifth academic year upon us, our Purpose Learning toolkits + trainings have journeyed to over 15,000 students, 1000 teachers, 200 schools across 25 states and 18 countries.
Proof Positive is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the wellbeing of autistic people and their families, providers and communities. We believe wellbeing is a skill to be learned and that everyone, including those with autism, deserves to flourish. Guided by the PERMA+ Theory of Wellbeing we provide free, evidence-informed positive psychology tools and resources for the autism community to learn, practice, teach, and spread the science and skills of wellbeing. Through our Autism Wellbeing Alliance, we are building a movement where people are empowered to take control of their own wellbeing and promote the wellbeing of others.
This book, written by Raquel Rios, is designed to help educators and other helping professionals bring mindfulness and social justice to the forefront of their practice for self-actualization and social transformation. It offers readers instructional practices, coaching strategies and implementation tools that raise awareness, foster critical consciousness and help build safe, well-rounded, inclusive, intellectually stimulating learning communities.
Raquel Ríos, Ph.D. is an educator, learning designer and author of the books, Teacher Agency for Equity: A Framework for Conscientious Engagement and Mindful Practice for Social Justice: A Guide for Educators and Professional Learning Communities. She started her career as a Spanish teacher and has traveled nationally supporting and training teachers, coaches and leadership teams. She has also worked in Spain, Puerto Rico and the United Arab Emirates. Raquel dedicates part of her time to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College as an Oral Historian Researcher.
Rhonda V. Magee (author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice) is a professor of law at the University of San Francisco. Also trained in sociology and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), she is a highly practiced facilitator of trauma-sensitive, restorative MBSR interventions for lawyers and law students, and for minimizing the effects of social-identity-based bias.
Students Taking Action Together (STAT) is a set of instructional strategies that allow middle and high school social studies/civics teachers to integrate social-emotional learning skills (SEL) and civil discourse into existing curriculum content.
Scott Rogers, MS JD, is founder of the University of Miami School of Law’s Mindfulness in Law Program and co-founder of UMindfulness, the University’s Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative. He is co-developer of Mindfulness-Based Attention Training (MBAT), and author of five books on mindfulness, including The Mindful Parent and The Elements of Mindfulness, which introduces the SoBe Mindful Method.
Susan Kaiser Greenland is an internationally recognized leader in teaching mindfulness and meditation to children, teens, parents, and professionals. She played a foundational role in making mindfulness practices developmentally appropriate for young people and helped to pioneer activity-based mindfulness with her first book The Mindful Child. Her second book Mindful Games, offers simple explanations of complex concepts, methods, and themes while expanding upon her work developing activity-based mindfulness practices. And her Mindful Games Activity Cards (written with Annaka Harris) feature 55 fun ways to share mindfulness with kids and teens.
In addition to her work sharing mindfulness with kids, Susan has recorded a series of thirty, brief guided meditations for grownups entitled Mindful Parent, Mindful Child.
Suzanne Freedman, Ph.D., is a Professor of Human Development in the Educational Psychology, Foundations, and Leadership Studies department at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She was the recipient of the APA Dissertation Award in 1993 for her groundbreaking research on forgiveness and incest survivors, published in 1996 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Suzanne has been studying the topic of forgiveness for over 30 years and her publications focus on the psychology of interpersonal forgiveness and forgiveness education with children, adolescents, and adults. She has presented at numerous national and international conferences on the psychology of interpersonal forgiveness. At the University of Northern Iowa, she teaches a variety of courses including the Psychology of Interpersonal Forgiveness, Child and Adolescent Development, the Development of the Middle School Child and Counseling Interventions with Children and Adolescents. Suzanne Freedman is the recent author of the curriculum, The Courage to Forgive: Educating Elementary School Children About Forgiveness.
Peace Learning Circles, an innovative evolution of the esteemed Tribes Learning Community, is a social-emotional learning curriculum offered by the Peace Learning Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. Serving as a guiding framework for transformative education, Peace Learning Circles is a research-based, CASEL SELect approach to blending academic and social-emotional learning, fostering the comprehensive development of every learner. Emphasizing collaboration, it sparks motivation and achievement across the educational community. Together, all stakeholders cultivate a culture of care and encouragement, setting high expectations and ensuring active engagement for students spanning from kindergarten to 12th grade. Peace Learning Circles paves the way for a brighter, more interconnected future.
MARC’s mission is to foster mindful awareness across the lifespan through education and research to promote well-being and a more compassionate society.
YoMIND offers yoga, mindfulness and neuroscience education to schools, teams and communities through on site classes and by providing free audio and video content on our website.
YouCubed, a center at Stanford University led by Professor Jo Boaler. In addition to classroom ideas and videos, YouCubed offers a variety of resources for mathematics educators including research summaries and professional development.