Richard Cardillo
Education Director
rcardillo@schoolclimate.org

Richard Cardillo is the Education Director of the NSCC. Rich has over two decades of experience as a classroom teacher, rural community organizer, public spokesperson, founder and administrator for social emotional learning/character education programs, senior member of community-based organizations, fundraiser, college teacher in Perú and developer of community service learning programs. He is a native of New York, fluent in both Spanish and American Sign Language, and brings an entrepreneurial spirit and vision to his work. He is the past New York Regional Director of Peace Games, Director of Client Services at God’s Love We Deliver in New York and has been a classroom teacher in elementary, middle and high school. Richard received his Masters Degree from Columbia University.

Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.
Co-founder and President of NSCC
jonathancohen@schoolclimate.org

Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D. is the co-founder and president of the National School Climate Center(NSCC), formerly known as the Center for Social and Emotional Education(CSEE). He is also Adjunct Professor in Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University; Adjunct Professor in Education at the School of Professional Studies, City University of New York and a practicing clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst.

Jonathan has worked in and with K-12 schools for over thirty years as a teacher, program developer, school psychologist, consultant, psycho-educational diagnostician and mental health provider. After working as a middle school teacher at the Marianne Frostig Center for Educational Therapy in Los Angeles, he received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the City University of New York, New York, New York and completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychology (1979-1980) at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center as well as at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Department of Pediatrics, New York, N.Y. He completed his adult psychoanalytic training at the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the New York Freudian Society and received child analytic training at the Psychoanalytic Institute, New York University Medical Center. He is a Diplomat in Clinical Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology (June, 1988).

Jonathan founded and directs the Teachers College Press Social Emotional Learning series, which is published in partnership with the Collaborative for Academic, Social Emotional Learning. He has authored over 60 articles, chapters and books including Educating Minds and Hearts: Social Emotional Learning and the Passage into Adolescence (Teachers College Press and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1999); (with B. Cohler) (1999) The Psychoanalytic Study of Lives over Time: Clinical and Research Perspectives on Children Who Return to Treatment as Adults (co-edited with Bert Cohler; Academic Press; 1999) and, Caring Classrooms/Intelligent Schools: Social Emotional Education of young Children (Teachers College Press; 2001). Both of his Teachers College Press books were awarded the "Best Academic Book" by the American Library Associations Choice in 1999 and 2001 respectively.

He is a co-author (with John Devine) of the recently published volume Making your School Safe: Strategies to Protect Children and Promote Learning (Teachers College Press, 2007).

Dr. Cohen has consulted to scores of schools, districts and State Departments of Education interested in furthering social, emotional, ethical and academic education and positive school climate in America, Switzerland, Israel, and Scandinavia. He often lectures to groups of educators, parents and/or mental health professionals here and abroad. He speaks to educational and parent groups about a range of topics and has presented keynotes at scores of national conferences, State and Federal educational meetings, schools and district professional development forums.

He is the father of two children and has been married for 26 years.

Alison Dichter
Development Director
adichter@schoolclimate.org

Alison graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a BA in Art History and has been working in Development for the past 7 years. Prior to NSCC, Alison worked in a variety of non-profits, including the arts, health and social services. Raised by a teacher (her mom), Social and Emotional Education is something she was taught and cares very deeply about. A native New Yorker with experience in individual giving, grant writing and event planning, she is eager to help NSCC grow their revenue and find new sources of support.

Darlene Faster
Chief Operating Officer, Communications Director
dfaster@schoolclimate.org

She is a seasoned public relations and communications professional, with more than 10 years of experience in the corporate and non-profit sectors. Darlene leads NSCC’s Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (CSCI) work with schools, districts, and states nationwide, and directly trains school personnel on interpreting their data to create sustained, actionable improvement plans. In 2009, she co-created and launched a new bully prevention awareness effort at NSCC called BullyBust (www.bullybust.org), which provides free concrete supports to help students and adults become upstanders (rather than bystanders) to bullying. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, focusing on Educational Policy. Her particular research and policy interests include understanding and improving the social and emotional development of students with Learning Disabilities as well as implementing successful transitional supports for students from high school to postsecondary life. Ms. Faster has done preliminary research in urban schools in Chicago and New York, and worked with the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) before joining NSCC. She received her B.A. in English from Hofstra University and her Masters Degree from CUNY, Queens College.

Jack Heidgerd
Director of Finance
jheidgerd@schoolclimate.org

Jack Heidgerd joined NSCC in August 2009 as Director of Finance and also currently serves as interim Chief Financial Officer at WNYC Radio. Jack is a graduate of the New York City public school system and received BBA and MBA degrees from Iona College in New Rochelle, NY. After college, Jack spent 25 years working in financial management in the Gannett Company, the largest newspaper publisher in the USA, last servicing as Vice President of Finance at The Journal News in White Plains, NY. In addition to significant accomplishments as a financial leader in Gannett, Jack has served in various financial leadership roles in non-profit organizations including Lutheran Social Services, The Food Bank for Westchester, Koinonia and the Westchester Housing Fund. He lives in Bedford Hills, NY with is wife Ann Marie and two sons.

Marjie Knudsen
Twitter Manager

Marjie Knudsen is the Twitter Correspondant for NSCC and Bullybust. She is a Child Advocate and Author. Her goal is to shine a light on the positive actions that youth can take to increase the feeling of well-being and resiliency in their lives. Towards that goal, she enjoys researching and sharing information for parents, teachers, counselors and leaders that work with youth. She has a B.A. degree in Communication from Iowa State University. Her past work has been in advertising and media production.

Chiqueena Lee
Policy & Practice Associate
clee@schoolclimate.org

Chiqueena Lee received her B.A. in English from San Jose State University and her J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law. She is currently working on her Ed.M in Educational Statistics, Measurements, & Evaluations with a minor in Special Education at Rutgers University. Chiqueena has previously worked with the North Carolina School Board Association and the UNC Center of Civil Rights. Chiqueena is excited to join NSCC because it will allow her to utilize both of her degrees in a field she is passionate about.

Shoji Masuzawa
Senior Information Technology Consultant
smasuzawa@schoolclimate.org

Shoji has been in the education community for more than 30 years as a teacher, director of a computer center, and software developer. Educated in Japan, he moved to the US to study philosophy and found a career in technology. Shoji directed the computer center at Riverdale Country School for nearly 10 years and decided to start his consulting company targeting schools and non-profit organizations in 1998. He joined NSCC after having consulted NSCC in IT for a number of years. He specializes in database development and now extends his expertise to management of technology projects.

Terry Pickeral
Senior Advisor

Terry Pickeral is the co-chair of the National School Climate Council, a national consortium advocating for policies and practices in support of quality, equitable and engaging learning environments. He is also a senior consultant to NSCC. He is also the president of Cascade Educational Consultants and former Executive Director of the National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) at the Education Commission of the States (ECS) and provides leadership in: youth engagement, school climate, civic development education policy; state and district leadership to sustain quality citizenship education service-learning, and education reform that focuses on student and community engagement.

Pickeral works with international, national, state and local organizations to advance a youth engagement, school climate and civic mission of school agenda focusing on policies, practices and collaborations. He co-created the 100 District Leader Network for Civic Engagement and Service-Learning, engaging district superintendents and school board members in integrating and sustaining quality civic education. He represents CEC in international and national collaborations and forums; conducts workshops for policymakers, education leaders and practitioners; facilitates strategic planning sessions for organizations and collaborations; and assists organizations to integrate and sustain service-learning, citizenship education and quality school climates. He authors and co-authors books, chapters and articles on the civic mission of schools, school climate, the academic alignment of service-learning, school and community collaborations, K-12 and higher education collaborations and service-learning and civic education policy. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii and his graduate degree from the University of British Columbia (Canada). He serves on the following boards: Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning (CIRCLE); Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools (CMS); Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL); Organization of American States Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices and the Service Learning Panamerican Network. He is also the president of Cascade Educational Consultants.

Nora Rudewicz
Marketing and School Support Manager
nrudewicz@schoolclimate.org

Nora Rudewicz is the Marketing and School Support Manager at NSCC. She is a graduate from the State University of New York at Oswego with her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications. Nora comes to NSCC with years of experience in advertising, marketing and educational volunteer work.  Raised by a principal she has been surrounded by the importance of improving education for most of her life. Nora is dedicated to making a difference in education and working with NSCC team to do so.

Anne-Marie Stehn
Office and Fiscal Manager
astehn@schoolclimate.org

Anne-Marie comes to NSCC with more than ten years of experience in nonprofit administration, most recently as the Finance and HR Director for the National Institute for Reproductive Health. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Texas and an advanced certificate in Conservation Biology from Columbia University. In addition to her work in the nonprofit sector, she has toured the country with various rock bands, worked on a game reserve in South Africa, handled big cats on film sets, and performed keeper work and scientific research at animal sanctuaries and national zoos. There, she took an active role in educating the public about wildlife conservation, believing today’s youth to be the key to species’ future survival.

She is an avid medievalist, and when not managing Quickbooks, she likes to collect swords and shoot her English longbow. She is currently working on a Master’s Degree in Medieval Studies at Fordham University.

Amrit Thapa
Research Associate

Amrit Thapa, Ph.D., is a research associate at NSCC. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Economics from Sri Sathya Sai University, India, and a Ph.D. in Economics and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Amrit has worked as a research assistant at the Schott Foundation for Public Education and was a teaching fellow for the Program in Economic Policy Management (PEPM). At Teachers College and Columbia University (PEPM) he was a Teaching Assistant for courses including Microeonomics, Macroeconomics, International Trade, Public Economics and Economics of Education. Amrit also taught Economics at Little Angles College of Management (Nepal) and Queens College as adjunct lecturer. Amrit is also a representative to the United Nations for The Institute of Global Education (IGE), an NGO that has consultative status with the Economic & Social Council of the United Nations.