We are communal creatures and we crave a place in which we belong. How do we make a place that both meets our human needs and serves its purpose?
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A workplace where we are responsible and respected.
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A neighborhood where we thrive, protecting each other and encouraging individual growth and expression.
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A place to talk to others about our children, our parents, our lives in an atmosphere of safety and respect.
Morgan Lee is especially interested in finding ways to help people to learn to live together while also honoring each other’s differences. Morgan always works from a platform of justice and equity.
Morgan serves as a facilitator, retreat leader and coach serving schools, educators, families, faith communities, organizations, businesses and communities throughout the United States and Canada. Morgan is the founder and Chief Learning Leader for Leading Up, LLC. He works with many groups through the Circle of Trust® approach to create a process of shared exploration where people can find safe space to nurture personal and professional integrity and the courage to act on it. He works with educators, teachers, and parents in restorative practices in order to strengthen relationships and build strong families, classrooms, schools and communities. He also works in schools as a leadership coach, a culture coach and as a leader in culture responsive education.
Morgan has a great deal of experience in leadership development. He has served as a principal, teacher and professional development specialist on school, school district and state levels. Morgan is certified as an elementary and secondary principal. He is an international facilitator with the Center for Courage and Renewal, a certified spiritual director through the Haden Institute, a development coach with training through the Center for Creative Leadership and a restorative practices facilitator with training through the International Institute for Restorative Practices.
Kim Allen works with schools and groups as a facilitatoron a variety of topics. She is experienced in PBIS training, Myers-Briggs analysis, and Leadership & Team development. She is certified as a Biology teacher, Elementary and Secondary Principal/Supervisor, and Superintendent and has served as a high school teacher; elementary, middle, and high school assistant principal; PBIS district coach; Educational Facilitator, and Education Associate.
Lena Lee is a librarian (she still prefers this term) who loves to serve adults, children, and communities by helping open literacy experiences to people from all walks of life. She has various experiences working in school libraries of all types and has served as an elementary and secondary school librarian. She is experienced in public service, serving the SC Senate as well as the SC General Assembly. Lena works with diversity, cultural responsive education, literacy, library/media programming, and parenting.
Wanda Frederick has over 30 years of experience in public education. She has served as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal, principal, executive director of early childhood and elementary education and university teacher induction coach and supervisor. Wanda has presented at district, state and national conferences on best practices in teaching and learning, instructional methodologies and instructional leadership. Wanda works with districts and schools on improving school culture; developing effective teacher teams; implementing professional learning communities with fidelity, employing the balanced literacy approach; facilitating professional literature book studies on culture building and instructional practices; implementing multi-tier interventions; improving classroom management and coaching and mentoring school leaders on instructional leadership. Wanda is also a registered trainer for the South Carolina Center for Child Development and offers services which provide DSS training hours to CERDEP teachers and administrators.
Wanda is a passionate believer in building relationships with all stakeholders. “No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship.”-by Dr. James Comer
Kathy Thomas is a writer, educator, mother, grandmother, and accountant. She has trained teacher leaders in Godly Play and Children's Spiritual Development. Kathy was a founder of Carolina School for Inquiry, a child-centered inquiry based public charter school and served as its board chair as it transitioned from Good to Great. She is a former high school social studies teacher and worked as an accountant for about 12 years. She blogs about life, family, and community. She is still searching and learning and enjoys working with other people who are on the same journey.
Sandra Sturdivant Merriam (Sandie) retired from a diverse career in public education a few years ago – and feels privileged to now create the kind of learning community for educators that she once created for students. Thirty-nine years in teaching included a wide range of opportunities from directing the first South Carolina residential facility for adolescents and adults with autism to developing transition services for a large school district’s special education population to teaching science and children with special needs. Sandie is an international Center for Courage & Renewal facilitator and has led many Circles of Trust®, including Teachers’ Voices and The Courage to Lead for Teacher Leaders. She has written about some of this work in Teaching with Heart: Poetry that Speaks To The Courage To Teach, Let the Beauty We Love Be What We Do: Stories of Living Divided No More and Thin Places: Seeking the Courage to Live in a Divided World.
