Brandee Collins is a fourth-grade teacher at Lloyd R. Ferguson Elementary in League City, Texas. She is a wife, a mother, a 25-year veteran teacher, and enjoys reading and staying active.
Kevin Ozar was born and raised in the city of Detroit, a place he deeply loves. He graduated with degrees in History, English and Education from the University of Dayton and has a Masters in Teaching and Learning from Marygrove College. He has been in education for the last 23 years, has taught every grade from 6-12 in content ranging from Drama, AP literature, US History and pretty much everything in between. He currently teaches 8th grade at Farmington STEAM Academy and is a trainer for the Bo...
John and Houston celebrate national #SELday! They talk about what SEL is, how CharacterStrong's work is advancing SEL in schools & communities, and Houston shares a story of a district that has creatively implemented the CharacterStrong Curriculum and the impact that it has had.
CharacterStrong Co-Founders John and Houston talk about the changes in our world these last few weeks and they share about some resources & practical tools that can provide hope & inspiration: Virtual Assemblies, the CharacterStrong Virtual Tool Kit, the Whole Child Virtual Summit, and the Kindness Journal.
Lindsey graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in 2013 with a degree in history and secondary education. She has a master's degree in educational leadership and has been working in education for 8 years. She has taught 8th-grade U.S. History for the past 5 years at Mayde Creek Junior High. In 2015, Lindsey was awarded Campus Teacher of the Year. Just recently, she became a Social Studies Instructional Coach for Mayde Creek Junior High and Cardiff Junior High in Katy ISD. She is a prou...
Christine Mazzi is a 16 year old Ugandan-American living in the Bay Area. She is the CEO and founder of The Woman of Color Project (ProjectWOC), an instagram based community organization that strives to inspire and empower young women and girls of color. When she is not Leading Project: WOC she loves to read YA novels, have light-hearted debates, spend time with her family, and rewatch Friends (or any Jubilee youtube video under the sun). Christina was recently named the 2020 MLK Student Humanit...
Dawn MacFarland has 20 years of service to military-connected students and families through DoDEA (Department of Defense Education Activity). She began her teaching career in Tucson, Arizona, and has since taught in London, England, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as Hanau and Stuttgart, Germany. Ms. MacFarland teaches language arts and humanities, and her lifelong commitment is dedicated to educating the whole child—mind and heart. Ms. MacFarland’s career is cultivated by a mindset that looks bey...
Aaron Hancock has been the Head Coach at Wyoming High School in Cincinnati, Ohio for the last eight seasons. He attended and played D3 football at The College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati. He has been a Physical Education Teacher at Wyoming High School for the last 19 years. The last four seasons his teams have gone 52-3 and has a career record of 85-14. In eight seasons as a HC, his program has won 6 League Titles, 2 Regional Runner up, 2 Regional Titles and 1 State Title. Prior to becom...
Micah Mortensen has been in education for 17 years. He started as middle school history teacher, quickly moved into the assistant principal and then principal position in Vail School District in Tucson Arizona. Micah made it a goal to know every single student's name on campus and could be found outside interacting with the students more than behind the closed door of his office. He has been the Superintendent for Benson School District in Arizona for the past 6 years. Micah was Arizona's 40 Und...
John Norlin is a Co-Founder of CharacterStrong, a Servant Leadership trainer, and motivational speaker. He was Advisor of the Year, taught 5 leadership classes per semester for 10 years at Sumner High, and was an Administrator for the Whole Child.
Antonio McLemore is a highly accomplished MBA graduate in Executive Leadership, who drives growth-oriented, Tacoma-based programs initiatives with a focus on community engagement, sustainable strategies, team building, and local/regional network development. He's a hands-on self-starter who exhibits personal, professional, and academic experience as a dedicated trailblazer, public speaker, and dedicated advocate toward creating positive change in the community. Antonio McLemore is the Male Invol...
Ryan Carle-Ogren graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Music Education (Music Secondary Education- Instrumental) and a Bachelor of Music (Performance-Instrumental Music). Throughout his education, Carle-Ogren has worked to develop an educational philosophy that ensures a positive, challenging, constructive, and inclusive learning environment while cultivating an appreciation for music and skills necessary to succeed in all aspects of life for all students involved...
Lisa Schroeder has taught for 17 years, cross circularly, and has received various honors, and educational awards for her teaching, leadership, community service and program development. Lisa is the recipient of The Student Leadership Advisor of the year for the state of Arizona in 2015, The National Young Leaders Congressional Youth Leadership Council Selection, and Who's Who Among National Educators. She has been a keynote speaker for educational leadership workshops at district, state and nat...
Dr. Dakeyan Cha’ Dre’ Graham, the 2019 Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year, was selected in July 2019 as the 2020 Florida Teacher of the Year, representing 74 school districts and more than 195,000 teachers. This year, Dr. Graham is on sabbatical from teaching and serves as the Christa McAuliffe Ambassador for Education. In this role, he tours the state delivering motivational speeches and workshops focused on empowering teachers to create the most impactful learning experience possible for ...
An acclaimed, experienced and versatile sports consultant, Brett McDaniel is a regular face on the sports performance scene and has consulted a variety of sports programs all over the northwest. A former all-state and collegiate athlete, has worked with college teams all around the region as well as numerous high school programs scattered around the state. In addition to his work with teams, he also has serves as a yearly presenter for the WIAA, WACA, FCA and numerous local coaching clinics. Aft...
CharacterStrong Co-Founders John Norlin & Houston Kraft celebrate 100 episodes of the CharacterStrong Podcast. We take some time to answer questions from YOU! Topics: the #1 tip in year one of CharacterStrong for implementation, the role of extrinsic rewards in the CharacterStrong programs, the time it takes for impact, how we can stay kind and loving daily, and how empathy connects to kindness.
Judith Elise Pratt lives on the East side of the Big Island of Hawaii in a small town called Kea'au. She has been an educator for the last nine years and teaches English at Kea'au High School. Her focus in on the 9th grade, but also teaches both AP English Language and AP English Literature. Her primary focus is building positive relationships with students to ensure they can become successful both in and out of the classroom. When she is not teaching she focuses on running and raising her child...
Jeff Gerber is a Leadership teacher and Student Council Advisor at Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School, 5 minutes from his home in New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada. At Waterloo-Oxford he leads one of the largest and most impactful student leadership programs in the province of Ontario. He is passionate about servant leadership and character development and travels across North America speaking about Leadership, Love and Belonging. He was recognized as Advisor of the Year for the province of On...
Tessa Mcilraith is the District Nurse for Burlington-Edison school district. She has been a nurse for 12 years, is going into her 6th year as a school nurse. Tessa serves as the Legislative Chair for the School Nurse Organization of Washington working on legislative advocacy, and is on the board for NW career and technical academy's nursing assistant program supporting the instructor. She also serves on the Burlington Healthy Community Coalition and Sedro-woolley R.I.S.E supporting healthy commu...
Corey has spent the last 37 years of his life in schools...19 of those as an educator! He started his career at a private Christian school in Renton teaching in multi-aged classrooms comprised of 19 different ethnic groups. For the last 13 years, he has served in his home community district, SBLSD, as a classroom teacher, Behavior/Family Support Specialist, Student Success Dean, and Assistant Principal at the elementary level. His passion is in coaching both the hearts and minds of the students ...
We talk with Ryan about how students respond to failure, how social media effects how we deal with failure, the importance of modeling and teaching failure, and how we can help and support students when they experience failure. Ryan Healy who has taught for 13 years at Ridgeline Middle School in Yelm, WA. Ryan is the 2019 Capital Region ESD 113 Teacher of the Year and was a finalist for the 2019 Washington State Teacher of the Year. He was also honored with the Association of Washington Student ...
Jon Harper is the host of My Bad and the co-host of Teachers’ Aid. He has had the chance to interview and learn from over 150 of the top minds in education and psychology. For over 20 years Jon has worked in education. He spent 10 years in the classroom teaching 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th grade, during which time he earned National Board Certification. Jon was also a math coach for 3 years. For the past ten years he has been an assistant principal. He is currently the assistant principal at New Direc...
Dara Feldman is the Chief Enthusiast Officer (CEO) of Virtues Matter. She is a passionate educator, speaker, coach, consultant and the author of The Heart of Education: Bringing Joy, Meaning and Purpose Back to Teaching and Learning. Dara has been an educator for 35 years and was honored as Disney’s 2005 Outstanding Elementary Teacher of the Year and Maryland’s 2015 Mother of the Year.
Trish Brown is the Counseling Department Chairperson & 9th Grade Counselor at Mercy High School, as well as a Therapist for Better Help in Farmington Hills, Michigan. She is a wife, a mother, an Executive Officer for the PTA at her daughter's elementary school, and a lover of yoga.
Jake Kelfer is a lifestyle entrepreneur and life elevator. He is the bestselling author of Elevate Beyond and Elevate Your Network, a high-energy motivational speaker on a mission to inspire millions of people to achieve personal success and happiness. He is the founder of the Professional Basketball Combine which helps NBA draft prospects turn their dreams of playing pro basketball into their reality. He and his work have been featured on Forbes, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, NBC Sports, USA Today,...
We talk about the work that Vincent is doing specifically around historicizing conversations, he shares about the audit tool that he has created, and gives some first steps to get started in this work. Vincent Perez currently leads Rethink Manhood, working with men and boys to deconstruct and counter, cultural narratives regarding what it means to be a "real" man. Vincent's practice is rooted in experiential education with a focus on culturally responsive pedagogy, trauma-informed systems, juven...
Jordan Osborn is in his 10th year of working in education. He started off as a social studies teacher in several different schools in Oregon where he also coached football and basketball. During his 10 years he has spent 7 years as an Athletic Director and 5 years as a vice principal most recently at Chiloquin Jr/Sr High School in Southern Oregon. Jordan is in his first year as Principal at Bonanza High School in South Central Oregon.
Robert Hand teaches at Mount Vernon High School. His subjects are Family and Consumer Sciences and Leadership. He is currently teaching Careers in Education - Recruiting Washington Teachers, Leadership, Nutrition, and Life After High School. Robert is the 2019 Washington State Teacher of the Year.
Dr. Lara Gilpin has been in education for 29 years. Her career with the St. Joseph School District began in 1993 as a P.E./health teacher at Spring Garden Middle School. In addition to teaching, Dr. Gilpin coached basketball and track at SGMS as well as varsity basketball and volleyball at Benton High School in St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1999 she became assistant principal at Robidoux Middle School and later moved to assistant principalship at Truman Middle School in 2001. The following year, Dr. ...
As the recipient of Special Olympics Missouri’s 2018 School of Character Award of Merit, Odessa High School values kindness and meaningful inclusion. The school with just over 600 students is in a rural community approximately 30 miles east of Kansas City. Following a year of using Character Strong resources in their student-led lessons in freshman classes, the school is in its first year of school-wide implementation of the Character Strong Advisory Curriculum. The school’s student council is r...
