The CharacterStrong Podcast

Todd Blake Finley, PhD, is a tenured Professor of English Education at East Carolina University and an assistant editor and blogger at Edutopia: George Lucas Education Foundation. He has taught elementary and 7-12th grade English and co-developed the Tar River Writing Project. Also, he was selected as one of the Top 12 Global Teacher Bloggers of 2014 and again in 2016 by Cathy Rubin for the Huffington Post. He has written Dinkytown Braves, a teaching memoir available on Amazon and Rethinking Classroom Design (Rowman & Littlefield) with Blake Wiggs. And he writes a free newsletter for educators.

Zachariah is the Next Generation Director at One Church in Columbus, Ohio. He is also a speaker, and writer for his company Heartbeat Strength which is inspired by his story of overcoming a life threatening heart condition. Heartbeat Strength helps students and professionals step into their potential by becoming "heart centered" so they can lead with more passion, purpose, and love. Prior to this, he worked at a private K-12 school as a Sports Performance Coach and Assistant Athletic Director. Zachariah is a former college baseball player, is an aspiring ametuer ukulele player, and passionate dog dad.

Todd Nesloney is the Director of Culture and Strategic Leadership for the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA). He has also served as an award winning principal of a PreK-5th Grade campus of over 775 students in a rural town in Texas. He has been recognized by the White House, John C Maxwell, the Center for Digital Education, National School Board Association, the BAMMYS, and more for his work in education and with children. He is a best selling author and host of the podcast series "Tell Your Story" He is passionate about doing whatever it takes for our students and helping others tell their story.

On this episode we learn from some of the team at Clear Brook High School. Dr. Michele Staley has been the principal at Clear Brook High School for the past 11 years. She has been in public education for 26 years, 21 of which have been as an administrator. Bridget Christmas is an Assistant Principal at Brook who currently oversees the BrookBound Program. She spent her career in education as a special education teacher where she taught SEL to students with disabilities and served as a district behavior specialist for 2 years before coming to Clear Brook. And Lauren Jehli is an award-winning educator and mental health professional with seven years of elementary and secondary experience. She currently serves as a Student Support Counselor at Clear Brook High School where she believes in changing the world through education.

Barbara Gruener thrives on positively influencing change, passionately helping people create caring connections, and intentionally improving a school's climate and culture. Her innovative and inspirational ideas are sparked by 34 years as a Spanish teacher and school counselor growing alongside students from every age and stage, Pre-K through 12th grade. A connected educator, Barbara loves leading supercharged character-development growth sessions with students, parents, teachers and administrators. Her book, What's Under Your Cape? SUPERHEROES of the Character Kind, earned a Mom's Choice Gold Award for supporting caregivers with stories and strategies to use as they help develop character strengths in young people in school and at home. Though she grew up on a dairy farm in WI, Barbara and her family now call Friendswood, TX, home.

Molly Winters Diallo has spent the last 23 years in education, a career that has spanned three different schools. She currently teaches at Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High in Miami, Florida. Molly serves as department chair for social sciences and her subjects include AP Human Geography, AP Psychology, and Honors U.S. History. She is also part of the school's Social Emotional Learning leadership team. In 2019, Molly was named Teacher of the Year for Miami-Dade County Public Schools and a top-five finalist for Florida Teacher of the Year. Molly and two of her seniors were recently awarded a $1,000 grant from CharacterStrong to implement a program that will bring students from different backgrounds together for monthly luncheons.

Beth Houf is the proud principal of Fulton Middle School in central Missouri. She is the Co-Author of Lead Like a PIRATE: Make School Amazing for Your Students and Staff. Beth also serves as a facilitator for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Leadership Academy, providing monthly training to state educational leaders. She has spoken at many venues, including the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference, the Association for Middle Level Education National Conference, The National Principal Conference and many state and local educational venues. She is also active in heTLIBTr local, state and national elementary principal associations. Fulton Middle School was recognized as a Missouri Exemplary Professional Learning Community and Solution Tree Model Professional Learning Community in 2019. Beth was named a Missouri Exemplary New Principal in 2011, the Missouri National Distinguished Principal for 2016 and 2019 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year. Beth's proudest accomplishments are her two sons, Paul and Dawson. She has been honored to help lead schools that she is proud to have both attend.

Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is the Founder and Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a Professor in the Child Study Center of Yale University. He is the lead developer of RULER, an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that has been adopted by nearly 2,000 pre-K through high schools across the United States and in other countries. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). As a researcher for over 20 years, Brackett has focused on the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, health, and performance. He has published 125 scholarly articles and received numerous awards and accolades for his work in this area. Learn more at: marcbrackett.com

We talk with Meena about how we all need relationships to thrive, she shares some strategies that support relationships in the classrooms, and how important it is that we view the the adult work that we do through an empathetic lens. Meena Srinivasan is the Executive Director of Transformative Educational Leadership (TEL). Prior to this role, she spent five and a half years working in partnership with the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) to implement SEL in the Oakland Unified School District. With expertise in both mindfulness and SEL she is the author of Teach, Breathe, Learn: Mindfulness In and Out of the Classroom and SEL Every Day: Integrating Social and Emotional Learning with Instruction for Secondary Classrooms. To learn more visit: meenasrinivasan.com

Ashanti Branch works to change how students, especially young men of color, interact with their education and how their schools interact with them. Raised in Oakland by a single mother on welfare, Ashanti left the inner city to study civil engineering at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo. A construction project manager in his first career, his life changed after he tutored struggling students and realized his passion for teaching. In 2004, during Ashanti's first year teaching high school math, he started The Ever Forward Club to provide support for African American and Latino males who were not achieving to their potential. Since then, Ever Forward has helped all of its more than 150 members graduate from high school, and 93% of them have gone on to attend two- or four-year colleges, military or trade school.