“I give priority to the moral side of human flourishing. This is for many reasons – but the most significant is that human goodness will drive societal progress. “

Dr. Marvin W Berkowitz is a world renowned scholar, researcher and educator. He is currently working as Founders Professor after having served as the inaugural Sanford N. McDonnell Endowed Professor of Character Education. Dr. Berkowitz is the Co-Director of the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He was also recognized as a University of Missouri President’s Thomas Jefferson Fellow. In 1999 Dr. Berkowitz was the inaugural Ambassador H.H. Coors Professor of Character Development at the US Air Force Academy. He served as Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Ethics Studies at Marquette University. He was also founder and Associate Director of the Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research in Milwaukee.

Click here to read more about Marvin Berkowitz

Melinda C. Bier serves as the Teresa M. Fischer Professor of Citizenship Education. Dr. Bier is Co-Director for the Center for Character and Citizenship (CCC), at UMSL where she has led program evaluation, the design and adoption of K-12 educational innovations, particularly in underserved schools and communities, and professional development for teachers and school leaders. Most recently Mindy has been leading a set of projects investigating whether educational leaders can intentionally cultivate and increase a specific set of servant leadership virtues. Cultivating Virtues For Leadership (CViL) is currently being implemented and evaluated in St. Louis, Kenya, and Mexico.

Click here to read more about Dr. Bier.

A high school teacher, middle school counselor, and 17 years in administration briefly sum up Dr. Johnston’s three-decade career in education. To truly understand her journey, however, take a moment to click here to read her turn-around story focused on Humble Leadership in Greater Good Magazine. After reading, it is easy to understand why the Francis Howell Middle School (FHMS) was awarded both the Missouri and National School of Character Award under her leadership as Principal.

Dr. Johnston has shared the FHMS Character Education Journey and the importance of a healthy adult culture with audiences everywhere. As a sought after practitioner, Dr. Johnston has presented in numerous settings including Tom Lickona’s Character Education Conference (CEC) in New York, the CHARACTERplus Conference in St. Louis, the CEC in Wisconsin, the National CEP Forum in Houston, the District 20 CEC in Colorado Springs, and the AME Conference at Harvard University. Her work with educators now extends internationally advising school leaders in China and Dubai.

Dr. Johnston’s academic achievements at the University of Missouri - St. Louis include receiving her Ed.D. Character Education and Democratic School Governance; M.S. Educational Administration; M.S. Counseling. She is a graduate of the CCC Leadership Academy in Character Education. Amy also received a B.S. in Secondary Education, Social Studies and Language Arts from the University of Missouri - Columbia.

Prior to joining the CCC team, Amy worked as a Consultant for CharacterPlus; Middle School Principal, Francis Howell Middle School; Middle School Counselor and High School Teacher.

In keeping with her personal philosophy of serving others, Dr. Johnston is an equine-assisted therapist as well as board member of TREE House (formerly known as Therapeutic Horsemanship) providing equine-assisted therapy for children with physical, social and or emotional disabilities.

Deborah Sanders O’Reilly is the Coordinator for the Center for Character and Citizenship.  Debbie has worked over twenty years in higher education in both the College of Management and Business and the College of Arts and Sciences at National Louis University in Chicago.  Formerly, Debbie held the position of Assistant Professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department and had experience in academic administration as department chair, also at National Louis University.  Prior to academia, Debbie worked in advertising and marketing in St. Louis. Debbie holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.  She also holds a Master's Degree in Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Saint Louis University.

Satabdi Samtani is currently a visiting research scholar at the Center for Character and Citizenship. She previously served as a research scientist for the center’s Cultivating Virtues in Leaders (CViL) project. Dr. Samtani completed her doctorate in Human Development and Family Studies from Texas Tech University. Her primary research interests are in evaluation and monitoring of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs. She is keenly interested in measure development, improving social science research designs, methodology, and analysis. A major section of her work includes developing robust SEL measures, innovative research designs to capture the influence of SEL on other school outcomes, and enhancing mixed method techniques. She also has international experience in project evaluation and secondary data analysis.

Suzanne Bright, Ed.D is an educational leader and expert in the area of creating and sustaining caring, high-performing schools and organizations. Dr. Bright has over 25 years of diverse experience in leadership, school administration, character education, professional development, and comprehensive school reform. Her passion and expertise are in facilitating and supporting high quality teaching and professional learning that empowers and inspires teachers and leaders across the country. 

Suzanne’s passion for character education was ignited through her participation in LACE, the Leadership Academy for Character Education, in 2001-2003. She went on to serve as a coach for the CHARACTERplus/U.S. Department of Education research project which yielded an evidence-based character education process proven to increase school-wide academic performance, lower classroom referrals, and improve culture and climate. In addition, she served as the CHARACTERplus Program Coordinator where she designed, led, and implemented the inaugural Missouri Schools of Character program, a parallel process to the National Schools of Character Competition conducted by Character Education Partnership. This program is still thriving and now boasts 73 Missouri Schools of Character.

Dr. Bright went on to serve as the principal of a National School of Character in a National District of Character. Under her leadership as principal, the school experienced significant academic growth and improvement and rose to rank in the top ten schools in Missouri (6th overall). She successfully supported a safe, caring, and autonomous environment for students and supported positive change in staff culture to one that was built on listening, understanding, creating new insights, reaching consensus, giving and receiving feedback, and celebrating success. Character education was the fundamental component of this success. 

Currently in her role as President and CEO of Orca Solutions, Dr. Bright partners with schools and districts across the country in developing and sustaining caring and high-performing school communities. She offers leadership and support for teaching and learning through presentations, workshops, institutes, and other professional learning experiences.

In addition to her extensive national and international work as a consultant and keynote speaker, Dr. Bright mentors aspiring principals through the Center for Character and Citizenship’s CEEL program, a multi-layer professional development experience which incorporates Servant Leadership into the CCC LACE program. She also teaches university courses at Missouri Baptist University in the areas of leadership and curriculum and instruction. 

Dr. Bright received her Ed.D. from Missouri Baptist University with an emphasis in Leadership in Teaching and Learning. Additional academic achievements include an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from the University of Mississippi and a B.S.Ed. in Elementary Education from the University of Memphis. 

In her free time, Suzanne enjoys family time with her husband, her teenage son, and her two Havanese dogs. Her volunteer interests include supporting foster families through various local foster care agencies and working in the children’s ministry at her church. Her hobbies include working out, hiking, reading, and watching Ole Miss and University of Memphis sports. She and her family enjoy traveling, and she frequently visits her family in the south.

For over 25 years Julie Frugo, Ed.D. has been a thought leader in the education field. Never satisfied with the status quo, her quest to serve more, do more and create more led her from the classroom in the suburbs of Chicago to becoming a founding member of the first charter school in St. Louis MO.  Julie has served as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and since 2010 the CEO/Superintendent of Premier Charter School (PCS).

Premier Charter School opened the doors in 2000 and continues to operate as  a highly diverse school serving 1,000+ students, speaking 17 different languages in grades Pre K-8. As the only charter school in the St. Louis area designated as both a State and National School of Character, Dr. Frugo, who is a graduate of LACE, Leadership Academy of Character Education, has been at the heart of the school’s character education journey. Her entrepreneurial spirit and relentless pursuit to keep relationship building and empowerment at the center of the work has resulted in a truly amazing place for kids and adults. She continues to  lead and develop the 165+ faculty and staff in deep work around maintaining  a character-driven culture that supports the curious and empowered learner. 

Dr. Frugo received her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and her Ed.D at the University Missouri - St. Louis under the mentorship of Marvin Berkowitz, Ph.D. as a part of the Character Education and Democratic School Governance cohort. Julie was most interested in how leaders support, empower, and cultivate professional learning, and growth in faculty and staff. Engaging through a lens of professional development, Julie eventually created a new framework of leadership called Professional Growth Leadership. Additionally, she has collaborated with three of her Ed. D. cohort peers to create the Connected Leader Framework. Julie has spent time sharing her story as a speaker at national conferences (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Association for Moral Education, Character Education Partnership,  Learning Forward) and works with schools around the region. She was honored as Leader of the Year by Missouri Public Charter School Association and has been interviewed and quoted for several publications including a feature in Parade Magazine.

Although Julie considers the PCS team part of her family she also loves spending time with her own immediate family, Greg and Wrigley (her sweet  Cavipoo pup). She is the youngest of 6 kids and her extended family is large in numbers, but  they are extremely close.  Julie, Greg and Wrigley hit the road often to Chicago for visits ,and yes she is a die hard Cubs fan! She loves to travel and finds inspiration and energy from meeting new people and visiting new places. Julie has always had a love of music and had a long stretch of singing at weddings (mostly friends and family). Now when she has the gift of some extra time you can find her writing poems or song lyrics while she procrastinates writing her first book!

Matt Klosterman began his journey in the character Education leadership field when his District joined CharacterPlus in 2000. He graduated from the Leadership Academy in Character Education with Dr. Marvin Berkowitz . As Superintendent, his commitment to forming compassionate students and responsible citizens led to three schools to National School of Character status and the district receiving National District of Character status during his 14 year tenure.

Matt retired in 2019 after a 36 year career in education and immediately began serving as a mentor in the CEEL program at the Center for Character and Citizenship. He also began serving as a site evaluator of National School of Character applicants for Character.org. He does this work to feed his own passion for character education, to assist schools become caring communities in which our children learn to be ethical, responsible and compassionate citizens and to help develop leaders who will transform school communities. Matt also tutors high school students who are in AVID, a program targeted to serve first-generational college students.

Mr. Klosterman’s academic credentials include doctoral candidate Educational Administration, Southern Illinois University- Carbondale; M.S. Educational Administration, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville; M.S. Clinical/School Psychology, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville; B.A. in Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis.

Matt had a 36 year career in education serving as a School Psychologist, Director of Special Education, Principal, Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Superintendent.

Over two decades as an educator then administrator, a National School of Character recipient and a St. Louis Region Middle School Principal of the Year, the best way to describe Kristen would begin with her turn-around story of Ridgewood Middle School. RMS suffered from low attendance, low academic achievement, and disciplinary problems where 36% of its students were on free or reduced lunch. With character education as the focus, RMS transformed itself into one of Missouri’s Top Ten Most Improved Schools in science, communication arts, and math. The difference as shared by Kristen? Dedicated administrative leadership emphasizing effective character education. For nearly a decade Kristen served as the district leader for character education. Not satisfied with her school becoming a National School of Character her work throughout Fox C-6 was recognized as a National District of Character. That incredible journey took Kristen before the Senate in Washington, D.C testifying on the positive impact “social, emotional and character development” has on students regardless their circumstance. Click here to access Kristen’s Senate testimony, a must read.

Kristen believes that “character education, if truly implemented as the foundational philosophy that infiltrates every aspect of the school setting, can work miracles.” Kristen has been a keynote speaker at several character education related conferences and was featured in a USA Today article entitled, “What Can Schools Do”.

Pelster was awarded an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership by the University of Missouri - St. Louis (UMSL) in 2023. Her educational achievements at UMSL also include an Ed.S. in Education Administration; M.A. in Education Administration and she is a graduate of the Leadership Academy in Character Education. Kristen received a B.A. in Music Education from Missouri Baptist University.

In addition to her consultancy work for the CCC, Kristen Pelster is currently the Senior Director of Programming, CharacterPlus. Prior experience includes Executive Director of Curriculum and Professional Development, Fox C6 School District; Assistant Principal and Principal, Ridgewood Middle School, Fox C6 School District; Music Teacher, Fox C6 School District.

Outside of work, Kristen serves in different capacities at Oak Bridge Community Church, African Vision of Hope and Missouri Baptist University.

Dr. Julie Sperry has been involved in the Character Education Leadership field since 2008 when she participated in the Leadership Academy in Character Education with Dr. Berkowitz. Her passion and vision for what a school’s climate and culture could be exploded and from there she led her school to National School of Character status in 2012. After her 14 year principalship, Dr. Sperry wanted to help develop capacity in others to make positive change. By joining the education service agency, EducationPlus, she was able to impact schools throughout the region with her work. She served for two years as Director of Regional Professional Development Center at EducationPlus and then through her passion for character, she transitioned to Executive Director of CHARACTERplus in March 2016. In both of these roles, she was responsible for generating resources and guiding the professional staff of these agencies that, through their wide variety of character-building programs and professional development opportunities, could reach 30,000 teachers and 330,000 students each year.

Currently Julie continues to serve the region as the Director of Leadership, Expansion and Innovation at CharacterPlus. Her passion and work is focused on growing, developing and building the social, emotional and character leadership capacity in others so that they can create communities where everyone can thrive, grow and be their best selves. Her work at UMSL with the CEEL project aligns perfectly with her passion for character and purpose to create transformational leaders. Julie continues to serve the region as a Missouri Leadership Development Specialist. Her work is focused on growing, developing and retaining quality school leaders throughout the St. Louis region.

Julie Sperry’s work experience includes serving as adjunct faculty at Fontbonne University, Lindenwood University and the University of Missouri - St. Louis. She has traveled to various regions in the U.S. to collaborate with schools who want to create school cultures where students and staff thrive including Alabama, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Dr. Sperry has presented at many regional and national conferences on both leadership and character education topics, including a 2019 presentation at an international Character Education Conference in Cheng Du, China. Her areas of focus include: Understanding Self as Leader; Creating your Best Self; and Helping Others be their best by creating cultures where people thrive through Autonomy, Belonging and Competence.

Dr. Sperry’s academic credentials include an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Administration, Maryville University, St. Louis; M.Ed. in Counseling, University of Missouri - St. Louis; M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Administration, University of Missouri - St. Louis; Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership, University of Missouri - St. Louis; B.A. in Education, Knox College . She is a graduate of the Leadership Academy in Character Education.

Thomas R. Hoerr is currently a Scholar In Residence at the University of Missouri - St. Louis teaching in the Educational Leadership program preparing prospective principals. In addition, as part of the Center for Character and Citizenship team, he assists in embedding the development of virtues and character into the school leadership preparation program.

Prior to his current position at UMSL, Dr. Hoerr headed the New City School in St. Louis, Missouri for 34 years and is now the Emeritus Head of School. He also led the ISACS New Heads Network and founded the Non-Profit Management Program at Washington University in St. Louis.

Hoerr has written seven books. His last book, The Principal As Chief Empathy Officer: Creating A Culture Where Everyone Grows, was published in January 2022. He has also written more than 170 articles, including the “Principal Connection” column in Educational Leadership from 2004 to 2017, and currently writes a monthly blog on school leadership for ASCD.

Jonathan Tirrell is a developmental scientist and Research Associate Professor serving as director of the Vuslat Foundation Generous Listening and Dialogue Initiative at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. He joined Tufts in 2012 as a graduate student in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, where he earned his PhD in 2017. As research faculty in the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts, Jonathan developed a research program studying human flourishing and character development with a specific focus on forgiveness as a civic virtue—he is interested in how young people become good people, perhaps especially in contexts of conflict and marginalization. He engages in researcher-practitioner partnerships with youth-serving organizations aimed at promoting positive youth development in low- and middle-income countries (namely Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and El Salvador). Jonathan also serves as co-editor of the Journal of Character Education. 

Jonathan’s interests in character development, forgiveness, restorative justice, and peacebuilding are connected by themes of listening and dialogue and, through the Generous Listening and Dialogue Initiative, Jonathan aims to build a theory-predicated evidence base for understanding and promoting listening and dialogue for character and community development.

Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D. is a clinician-scholar. All of his research, educational leadership development and mental health practice efforts have been focused on understanding and supporting individuals and organizations learn and develop in healthy ways. He works with school systems around the world supporting leadership development and social, emotional, moral and academic learning. He is a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology.

Dr. Cohen is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers, chapters and briefs as well as six edited and/or authored books. His award winning books include Educating Minds and Hearts: Social Emotional Learning and the Passage Into Adolescence (Teachers College Press, 1999), Caring Classrooms / Intelligent Schools: The Social Emotional Education of Young Children (Teachers College Press, 2001) and most recently, Feeling Safe in School: Bullying and Violence Prevention Around the World (Harvard Educational Press, 2020).

Cohen supervises young mental health professionals from clinical psychology doctoral programs, the Chinese-American Psychoanalytic (CAPA) Program and privately. He also teaches and supervises at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis & Psychology’s Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy program.

Juan P. Dabdoub is currently working at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR)

He currently leads three international initiatives: University Communities for Character Development, the international research project Educaracter in Mexico and theLeadership in Character Educationcourses in Madrid. He has also been leading, researching, and promoting Colegios Mayores for more than a decade.

His appointments include being Secretary of the Executive board of the Association of Moral Education and Scholar Affiliate of the Center for Character & Citizenship at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, among others. He actively collaborates to promote character development initiatives with many and diverse institutions all over the world, such as Coschool in Colombia, Universidad Panamericana in Mexico, Kolegium of Antona Neuwirth in Slovakia, Varkey Foundation in Argentina, or Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Perú, among others.

Peter Kingori is the Director of the Character Education Programme at the Centre for Character and Leadership in Nairobi, Kenya. He has served as a co-principal Investigator of the Cultivating Virtues in Kenyan School Leaders (CViL) project together with Dr. Melinda Bier from the Center for Character and Citizenship. He also serves as a Secretary of the Character and Leadership Council.

Peter holds a key responsibility of positioning the Centre for Character and Leadership organization towards achieving its vision as a Centre for research and training, advocacy and community transformation. His main research interests are in Character education, virtue internalization and practice, spiritual growth and development, servant leadership, peace building, youth mentorship and good parenting practices.

His expertise includes training school principals, teachers and education stakeholders on servant leadership, virtue development and effective strategies of implementing Character Education; conducting leadership and students’ mentorship trainings; and engaging parents about their parenting roles and responsibilities. His prior experience included being an administrative assistant and mentor of the disadvantaged students who were being sponsored by Africa Nazarene University.

Peter is currently working toward his doctorate degree at the Kenya Methodist University. He holds a Master of Art in Religious Studies degree from Kenya Methodist University and Bachelor of Religious Studies from NationsUniversity. He is a recipient of ‘Change Your World Distinction Award’ which he was awarded by NationsUniversity because of his selfless character towards serving God and humanity. He is a member of the Association for Moral Education and Society for Research in Child Development. He likes debating about moral and governance issues in National media.

Mark Liston is a thought leader in positive education and character development. He is the founder of Liston Group, which provides resources for character development and assessment to organizations in the United States and twelve additional countries. Dr. Liston created Character Challenge, a research-based curriculum using movie clips, peer discussion and Positive Psychology exercises.

Dr. Liston received his doctorate at the University Missouri - St. Louis, under the direction of Marvin W. Berkowitz. His dissertation project created and validated the Character Growth Index, a measure of character development. He consults with secondary and higher education, businesses and non-profits on the practices of character development. Mark also received a Master of Divinity and once served as an ordained United Methodist minister.

Mark Liston’s personal and professional experiences with childhood abuse and bullying have developed his character, empowering him to be an effective pastor, professional counselor, author and speaker.

Mike Park’s history with the Center for Character and Citizenship date back to his participation in and graduation from the Leadership Academy in Character Education (LACE™). He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of CharacterPlus®, the largest and most successful community-wide character education initiative in the country.

Mr. Park also served as an Army Intelligence Officer in Europe and later as an executive for multi-million dollar consumer retail companies and continues as a managing partner for Brand-P® companies which include WeBeSchools®, CharacterMoxie®, and Mostbestos®. He is a graduate of The U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School, The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Executive Development Program and The University of Alabama. Mike’s work has afforded him opportunities to share his experiences and work with K-12 schools and universities, including the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Wolfgang Althof, born 1950 in Germany, earned (the equivalent of) a MA degree in education (1979) at the University of Hamburg (Germany), his Ph.D. in Education at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) in 1990 and a second, higher-level doctorate, Dr. Habil (called “Habilitation”) for the field of Educational Sciences at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Germany) in 2002. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in 1995-96.

Dr. Althof taught at the University of Fribourg (1984-2004) and at UMSL's College of Education (2005-2018), where he served as the Teresa M. Fischer Endowed Professor of Citizenship Education, the Director of the Citizenship Education Clearing House (CECH) and the Co-Director (with Marvin W. Berkowitz) of the Center for Character and Citizenship.

He has authored, edited or co-edited eight books and numerous articles and book chapters. His research focus was on social and moral development and education, citizenship education and education for democracy. Notably, during his tenure in Switzerland, he played a leading role in implementing and evaluating school-wide programs in moral/character and democracy education called "Just and Caring Communities" in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. The major programs he ran as Director of CECH are Kids Voting Missouri and MY LOGO (Missouri Youth Engaged in Local Government); thanks to Sandy Diamond (former project coordinator) and Marvin Beckerman (former chair of CECH Advisory Board).

Dr. Althof's professional service includes serving on the Executive Board of the Association for Moral Education (AME, 2006-2012) and as AME President (2013-2016). He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Moral Education.

Wolfgang Althof retired from UMSL in the Fall of 2018. While he moved back to Germany, he still can be reached at his UMSL email address, althofw@umsl.edu.

Judy Berkowitz began volunteering for the Center for Character and Citizenship in 2020. Her primary focus has been building and maintaining the CCC website, and providing the CCC staff with project support. In addition to her volunteer position with UMSL, Ms. Berkowitz has worked as a community reviewer for the St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund in 2022 and 2023.

Ms. Berkowitz worked in the non-profit arena for over 40 years prior to her retirement in 2019. She served as the Director of the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry, a program of Jewish Family Services-St. Louis, responsible for oversight of the largest food pantry in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. Before leading the food pantry program, Ms. Berkowitz spent ten years as the Executive Director of Kids In The Middle, a non-profit organization providing counseling for children with parents going through separation, divorce or remarriage. She also served as the Executive Director of the St. Louis Chapter of Hadassah, an international women’s volunteer organization dedicated to philanthropic causes dealing with medical care and education.

Prior to moving to St. Louis in 1999, Ms. Berkowitz lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, working at Jewish Family Services as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Clinic Coordinator for more than 20 years. Judy’s professional career also includes working as a vocal music teacher, an entertainer and a corporate trainer. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from Hofstra University in New York and a master’s degree in Guidance and Counseling from Wayne State University in Michigan.

Ms. Berkowitz currently lives in Georgetown, Texas, with her husband, Marvin W Berkowitz.

When not volunteering, you can usually find Judy on a yoga mat.