Voices from the Summer Institute
Kevin Jennings Talk
2011 Summer Institute Faculty
Scott Bezsylko, M.A., is the Executive Director of the Winston Preparatory Schools and The Winston Institute. He supervises the leadership teams at the New York and Connecticut schools both educationally and organizationally ensuring the delivery of ‘education for the individual’ -a model for socially and emotionally informed middle and high school learning disabled students. Scott is also a member of the Board of Trustees, the Board’s finance committee, and is currently leading the development of a research and outreach branch of the schools called “The Winston Institute”. Mr. Bezsylko is also a Co- Director of the Nonverbal /Social and Emotional Disorders Research Project, author of related research articles on NVLD and Social Emotional Learning, former adjunct faculty member at the Teachers College Columbia University Child Study Center, former Director of Education at The Janus School in Lancaster, PA, has been a faculty member at many of the Center for Social Emotional Education’s Summer Institutes, and is a member of the NYU Child Study Center Advisory Board.
Philip M. Brown, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Social and Character Development Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. His most recent publication is a chapter on evaluation in "Effective Character Education: A Guidebook for Future Educators". His accomplishments during his career directing programs in the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the New Jersey Department of Education included the creation of the first educational credential in substance abuse prevention and directing the largest state project in the country supporting the development of character education. He established of the Center for Social and Character Development at Rutgers University through two consecutive federal grants under the NCLB Partnerships in Character Education program, conducting process and outcome research in schools throughout New Jersey on the development of social and character development programs.
Vanessa Camilleri is the Social Emotional Learning Specialist on the leadership team at The Arts & Technology Academy Public Charter School in Washington DC. In this capacity she is responsible for providing training for teachers, developing school-wide programs, and disseminating best practice resources on all areas pertaining to developing a positive school culture (community building, relationship formation, maintaining clear expectations, using positive behavior management, using positive language etc…). She is currently completing doctoral studies in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Maryland. She has presented and published widely and has consulted with schools and charter school start-up organizations.
Richard Cardillo is the director of education for the NSCC. Rich has over two decades of experience as a classroom teacher, rural community organizer, public spokesperson, founder and administrator for a social emotional learning/character education programs, community-based organization, 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. Richard received his Masters Degree from Columbia University.
Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D. is the Director, Summer Institute, co-founder and President, National School Climate Center (NSCC); co-founder/co-chair (with Terry Pickeral) of the National School Climate Council; Adjunct Professor, Psychol¬ogy and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University; Adjunct Professor in Education, School of Professional Studies, City University of New York; and co-author and editor of many papers and books including Educating Minds and Hearts: Social Emotional Learning and the Passage into Adolescence (1999) and Making your School Safe: Strategies to Protect Children and Promote Learning (2007). He is also a practicing clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. He lectures and consults to schools, districts, State Departments of Education and foreign educational ministries.
Clement Coulston is a summer institute leader. He is also a student at the University of Delaware. Youth leadership, engagement, and advocacy are passionate topics for him due to his belief and experience that youth can be educated and empowered to go out and be the positive change in the world. Through his involvement in the Special Olympics Project UNIFY® Youth Activation Committee, Coulston continues to spread the word that we need to look to our youth as agents of change! Outside of school, Coulston enjoys volunteering, hanging out with friends, and going to the beach.
Lou Ann Evans is a member of the National School Climate Council and a co-author of the School Climate Guide for District Policymakers and Educational Leaders. She is also a member of the District Leaders Network for Civic Engagement and Service Learning, and past president of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. As a State College Area School Board member, she was instrumental in the advancement of democratic principles and processes, service learning in particular, as tools to improve student learning and school climate. As a community volunteer, she serves as co- chair of Care Partnership: Centre Region Communities That Care and the Public Issues Forum of Centre County. Both organizations focus on creating a climate of collaboration and co-operation at the community level in order to address local issues.
Darlene Faster is the Director of Communications at the NSCC. She is an advanced doctoral student in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, focusing on Educational Policy. Her research and policy interests include understand¬ing 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. Darlene has done preliminary research in urban schools in Chicago and New York, and worked with the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) before joining the NSCC.
Jo Ann Freiberg, Ph.D. Consultant at the Connecticut State Department of Education, manages school climate improvement, bullying and character education. Her doctoral work at The Ohio State University was in professional and classroom based ethics. Her professional career as a classroom teacher, teacher educator and national consultant has been devoted to empowering the adults who teach and work with children to exemplify ethical and respectful behavior in order to create physically, emotionally and intellectually safe and positive learning environments. A member of the Connecticut task force on bullying, she also serves on the National School Climate Council.
Evan Heller is a summer institute leader. He is 18 years old and will be attending UMass Amherst where he plans to double major in English with a specialization in Creative Writing doubled with Sociology. He participates in many programs and clubs in his school centering on leadership, equality, community service. Evan is passionate about writing and enjoys writing, theatre, and a variety of sports, especially tennis. He has been involved with Special Olympics for about 10 years now and is part of the National Youth Activation Committee as well as the Massachusetts State Youth Advisory Council. He also is a coach for his local Special Olympics team and just recently concluded an internship with his Special Olympics Section Office.
Ann Higgins-D’Alessandro, Ph.D. is a professor and the Director of the Applied Developmental Program at Fordham University. She is the author (with Clark Power and Lawrence Kohlberg) of Lawrence Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Educa¬tion (1989), editor (with Katherine Jankowsky) of Science for Society: Informing Policy and Practice Through Research in Developmental Psychology (2002), and consultant/co-author of the US Department of Education’s publication Mobilizing for Evidence-Based Character Education (2007). She is also the NSCC’s senior research advisor.
Kevin Jennings is an assistant deputy secretary and director of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the US Department of Education. Jennings founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in 1990 and directed it until 2008. He is a former high school history teacher. He is the author of many books, most recently including Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son, which was named a Book of Honor by the American Library Association.
Toni Merfeld joined the Department of Education as a contract consultant for children’s mental health in 2007. She was hired as the full time children’s mental health consultant in 2009. Her experience has spanned 32 years as a special education teacher, consultant, trainer, adjunct faculty member at Upper Iowa University and advocate. Outside of her work at the DE, Toni is the Executive Director/owner of Metro West Kids Learning Center and President of Metro West Kids Foundation both of which promote advocacy and training for individuals on the autism spectrum. Toni is Board Secretary for the Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities- International Council for Exceptional Children and Past-president of Iowa Council for Exceptional Children.
Howard Rodstein is the director of and a 10th grade English teacher at the Scarsdale Alternative High School. As the head of this “Just Community” school, he has co-led numerous workshops, most recently at national conferences of the Coalition for Essential Schools in Charlotte and Chicago, on the application of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development to the A-School’s six core structures. Raised in a small town in north Georgia where he attended public school, Howard completed his undergraduate work at Brandeis University, and he holds two Masters degrees from Teachers College and Bank Street. He is also an Annenberg Institute trained Critical Friends Group coach; using this model of reflective practice, he has been co-facilitating a teacher study group in Scarsdale for more than a dozen years, and he has been training teacher-leaders in the East Ramapo school district in Rockland County for four years.
Terry Pickeral is the co-chair of the National School Climate Council and 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 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.
Cecile Wren is a member of NSCC's consultation faculty. She was the principal at Jericho Middle School for eight years and worked collaboratively with her staff to design and implement a resilient middle school that articulates a clear vision, social and emotional literacy strategies, and research-based best practices. As a result, Jericho Middle School has been recognized as a New York State Network Support School, as well as a High-Performing Gap Closing School which now provides support to middle schools throughout New York State. She has over 30 years experience as an educator and her experiences include: Middle and High School Mathematics Teacher, Technology Coordinator, Dean of Students, as well as, an Elementary Principal.
Yu Jenny Zhong is a summer institute leader. She is currently a rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Her extracurricular interests--including education policy, research and youth engagement--were first sparked through her work with Special Olympics Project UNIFY. As one of the inaugural members of the Youth Activation Committee, she has had the opportunity to work on youth empowerment summits, campaigns, and rallies on social justice for students with and without intellectual disabilities since Project UNIFY entered school systems three years ago. Since then, she has also gained other amazing opportunities to work with issues in education with the National School Climate Council and Cascade Educational Consultants.
