Having grown up amidst many challenges, his daily purpose is to inspire and motivate both students and staff by being a living testament that perseverance and determination can lead to success. But, this only happens with the right support network. Frank Arce will share with us some of his struggles and obstacles in life that made just getting through high school hard enough. He considers it miraculous that we has been able to achieve much more beyond that, but has never forgotten the many lessons learned from those struggles and challenges. Frank currently serves as the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Development for the Temecula Valley Unified School District in California. In our centuries old educational system, students with stories similar to that of our next guest fall through the cracks. That's where the work of educators comes in. That's why it's important to him to speak to us today about the critical role that we all play in helping students achieve - "Against All Odds".

James Woods has his masters in counseling, and is a registered yoga teacher. As president of FEEL FREE 2 FEEL FREE a health and wellness organization that provides programs and services for youth and adults who serve them, he, trains and holds workshops on self care, yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. Timmy Tut is the first book from James that fulfills his passion of sharing wellness tools through a literary experience to better serve the youth. James is also the founder of Million Man Meditation a wellness resource event featuring all Black men. Website: https://www.datyogadude.com

We talk with Assistant Principal Kim Hawkins, Shawn Simpson, Lindsey Ostrom, & Jacki Friedholm from Woodgate Intermediate School in Midway ISD about the ways that they work to focus on SEL in everything that they do.

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.