The CharacterStrong Podcast

Kate grew up in Missouri and attended William Jewell College, where I earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology. She went on to earn her Master's degree in School Counseling at University of Tennessee - Knoxville. Kate currently resides in Oregon, where her partner, their dog Atlas, and Kate spend as much time as possible hiking and walking our neighborhood. She has worked at all levels of education, including post-secondary education. Kate is currently the School Counselor at Baker Prairie Middle School in Canby, Oregon. As an educator, she is passionate about self-reflection, honesty, and progress - whether that's in practice, policy, or personal growth. During her time at Baker Prairie, Kate has been able to bring in a new SEL curriculum (CharacterStrong) through grant funding, begin an annual Peace Month which has grown to include a Peace Summit, collaborate with teachers to have the entire school write a book together, and many other smaller program activities that were only possible because of an amazing team of teachers, administrators, office staff, and facilities staff. This year, Kate was named Peace Educator of the Year by the Wholistic Peace Institute.

We talk with CharacterStrong team member Riley Bruil about how social emotional learning at his high school impacted him as a leader & college athlete, and he shares about how standing at a door changed his senior year.

Dr. Renee Carr is originally from the west coast, from Vallejo, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area and from Silverdale, WA in the Kitsap Peninsula across from Seattle. Even though she has been in the DC area, on the Virginia side for the last 10 years, she has not left behind her west coast roots. Dr. Renee Carr, EdD has been working in education and related programmatic work since 2007. She is multilingual: she speaks French, Spanish, and Modern Greek. Dr. Carr taught English at a technical high school in France. She studied abroad in Greece and Spain. She has worked at a university, been a government contractor, worked for non-profits, associations, and two school districts in the Washington, DC area. At school she goes by Señora Carr, Madame Carr or Doctor Carr. She recently wrote a book for the publisher Rowman & Littlefield called Accountability in the Classroom: Using Social-Emotional Learning to Guide School Improvement. The book was published in February 2021. The premise of this book came from her dissertation topic, social-emotional learning and school accountability systems which she started researching while she worked at the College Board. She added her own experiences as an educator both from the perspectives of world language education and the COVID-19 crisis. Dr. Carr received her EdD from the George Washington University in 2019 and her MA in Political Science in 2009 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She obtained her BA in French and International Studies in 2007 from the University of Washington.

Dr. Smith is the Director of Research at CharacterStrong. He has extensive experience providing mental health services to children and youth and has worked in schools as a school counselor, school social worker, and substance abuse counselor. Since receiving his PhD from the University of Washington he has spent over a decade translating research into effective Social Emotional Learning programs. Brian is an expert on all aspects of SEL, including program development, implementation support, assessment, and evaluation. Brian has provided presentations, trainings and keynotes to educators, researchers, and corporate audiences, co-authored book chapters and articles for both scientists and teachers and is an expert on applying science to promote social and emotional competence.

Kris has been teaching for 39 years, all in Early Childhood. She graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with a dual major in Elementary and Early Childhood Education (a pilot program at the time) and a minor in music education. Kris has taught in the states of Nebraska, California, Missouri, and most recently, Kansas. Kris received her MaEd from Baker University. Kris currently teaches full-day PreK in a small south-central Kansas community. In addition to Kris' teaching responsibilities, she is an active member of her PEO chapter, a philanthropic, educational organization for women, and serves as the chairperson of the Community Giving Committee. Kris is also a trainer for Resilience Reno County. Resilience Reno County is an initiative that will work to break the cycle of poverty by raising awareness and educating of ACES, and equipping the community with resources on healing from adverse childhood Experiences. Kris and her husband have been married for 31 years, have three grown children and one granddaughter.

Born and raised in Spokane, WA, Chelsea Gallagher has known since the third grade that education was her calling, except for that short stint where she wanted to be a professional ghostbuster. She graduated from Eastern Washington University with her bachelor's degree, is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher in English Language Arts, and holds two Master's degrees from Grand Canyon University. Over the course of her career, she has worn many hats including mom (to Brooklynn and Nolan), Wife, English teacher, Cambridge Coordinator, Dean of Students, Instructional Coach, Assistant Principal, and now the Director of Professional Development for CharacterStrong.

Molly A. Gosline, EdM, MA is the Coordinator of Social Emotional Learning at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Illinois where she works with academic divisions and teacher teams to develop instructional practices that integrate social emotional learning into their classrooms to support students' SEL growth. Ms. Gosline collaborates with SEL and school climate colleagues throughout the country, has presented at dozens of school climate & learning conferences and workshops and is the executive director of SEL4IL. Molly holds an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from the Lesley Graduate School of Arts & Sciences as well as an Ed.M. in Risk and Prevention within the Human Development & Psychology division from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Molly is currently a doctoral candidate in the Mid-Career Educational Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education where her research focuses on social emotional learning integration practices.

Alex Clark is a young, passionate and committed leader who has served most of his adult life making a strong impact on student-athletes across the northeast region. Alex has worked with students of all ages from K-12, to D1 athletes, to pros. Alex has expertise coaching many sports since he was a teenager that he wanted to work and inspire young people to be their best, and his philosophy teaches you how to. How to always be PRIME. Graduating from East Hartford High School in Connecticut, Alex was a standout athlete both on the football field and basketball court that led him to a short stint as a division 1 athlete where he graduated with a degree in kinesiology from Central Connecticut State University. Like most young athletes, Alex dreamt of playing professionally, however, when that dream was no longer possible, he aimed his force to helping others reach theirs. Inspired by the many teachers, coaches and leaders around him, Alex wanted to create a sports program that infused sports training with character development skills so that young athletes can both train at an elite level for their prospective sport, as well as enhance the way they think, make decisions and plan for their lives. The program is called PRIME ABILITY. Alex is now a teacher at Dunbar High School located in Washington D.C, where he serves as a Health & PE teacher as well as the varsity boys basketball and girls soccer head coach. In just his second year as head coach for the soccer team, he was named 2017 DCIAA coach of the year. He most recently has started the #STAYPRIME movement in DC where he impacts students with quality fitness opportunities, the most popular being his newly launched #STAYPRIME biking program that aims to run again from March 2021-November 2021

Houston & John celebrate #SELday! They talk about how our current times have shown us why SEL is crucial, the importance of student voice in SEL, and how research, reality, & relevance come together in teaching and supporting SEL.

We talk with Lindsay about the 2021 Whole Child Virtual Summit happening March 22-26th, and she shares a few powerful highlights from some of this years speakers.