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Kathy Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Washington, D.C. Kathy Beland, lead author of School-Connect: Optimizing the High School Experience and original author of the award-winning Second Step: A Violence Prevention Curriculum, received the nationally recognized Sanford N. McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education (a.k.a. “The Sandy Award”) from the Character Education Partnership (CEP) at its 2009 National Forum.

Beland’s work in the field of prevention education spans Emmy Award-winning educational videos on the prevention of child abuse and youth violence to K-12 curricula on social emotional learning. Second Step, which teaches skills in empathy, impulse control, and anger management, is used in over 25,000 classrooms in the United States, Canada, and 26 other countries. Second Step was recognized with an “Exemplary” award from the U.S. Department of Education, surpassing all others in its class, and as a Model Program by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA).

Beland, along with co-author Julea Douglass, founded School-Connect in 2003.  The School-Connect curriculum, designed to ease students’ transition to high school and create a supportive learning environment, is implemented in 45 states, the District of Columbia, three Canadian provinces, and Israel.

Described by CEP Executive Director Joseph Mazzola as “one of the true unsung heroes of character education,” Beland lead the early development of CEP’s National Schools of Character recognition program and was lead writer on its Eleven Principles Sourcebook: How to Achieve Quality Character Education in K-12 Schools.

 “This award is such a well-deserved recognition for the important work Kathy has been doing for more than 20 years,” said Joan Cole Duffell, executive director of Committee for Children, which distributes and continues to develop the Second Step program. “Kathy’s work as a teacher, curriculum developer, writer, and lecturer has always focused on helping young people build the skills to be better students, classmates, family members, and citizens of the world.”

About CEP and The Sandy Award: Based in the District of Columbia, CEP is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonsectarian coalition of U.S. organizations and individuals dedicated to helping schools develop people of good character for a just and compassionate society. The Sandy is named for Sanford N. McDonnell, McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft’s chairman emeritus, and is CEP’s highest honor in recognition of an individual’s outstanding lifetime achievement in character education.  www.character.org.

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