Educating Future-Ready Students

Dr. Aaliyah A. Samuel is the President and CEO of CASEL and Senior Fellow, Harvard University, Center on the Developing Child. 

Dr. Samuel is a bilingual executive leader with expertise from early childhood through higher education. Dr. Samuel previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Local, State and National Engagement at the U.S. Department of Education and former Executive Vice President of Government Affairs & Partnerships at NWEA. She has informed state policy agendas, assisted with developing cross systems approaches to develop policy solutions to support children and families and leading systems-level change. In her role at NWEA, she led a team working on driving a state and federal education agenda. Prior to NWEA, Dr. Samuel was the Director of Education at the National Governors Association (NGA), supporting high-ranking state officials on the development of policies that impacted health, education, and workforce. In every role, she works with diverse constituents, philanthropies, national and international partners.

As a leading voice in education, she has testified before Congress and has been quoted in Bloomberg, Education Week, U.S. News, and the Washington Post on various education topics, and featured on network segments such as Univision, NBC and CNN. Dr. Samuel presents at numerous education conferences and convenings nationally, internationally and is seen as a global leader.  She holds an undergraduate degree from Tuskegee University, a Masters from University of South Florida, and a Specialist and Doctorate Degree from NOVA Southeastern.

Stanley S. Litow is a Professor at both Columbia and Duke University. At Duke University, he also serves as Innovator in Residence. Stan is the author of The Challenge for Business and Society: From Risk to Reward and co-author of Breaking Barriers: How P-Tech Schools Create a Pathway from High School to College to Career. He previously served as President of the IBM International Foundation and as Deputy Chancellor of Schools for the City of New York. Before his service at IBM and the NYC public schools, he served as President and Founder of Interface and as Executive Director of the NYC Urban Corps, operated out of the Mayor’s Office. He has served on a multiple of Presidential and Gubernatorial Commissions and in addition to his service on the SUNY Board of Trustees; he also serves on the board of Roosevelt House and the Citizens Budget Commission. Stan helped devise the innovative school to college to career program called, PTECH as well as the IBM Corporate Service Corps, often referenced as the corporate version of the Peace Corps. He has received multiple awards for his community service, from organizations such as the Ann Frank Commission, the Marin Luther King Commission, and the Center for an Urban Future as well as the Corning Award from the New York State Business Council.

Dr. Teri Lawler is passionate about making equity of opportunity available to all students regardless of zip code. Delaware’s 2010 School Psychologist of the Year, Teri has spent her career translating research to practice in some of our state’s most vulnerable school communities. Current projects include social and emotional competence, universal screening for behavior and academics, strengthening multi-tiered systems of support with neurosequential strategies for healing the brain and body, and the creation of trauma-informed systems of care for schools communities, out-of-school providers, and other youth-serving organizations. Teri is a founding member of Delaware’s Compassionate Schools Learning Collaborative and the City of Wilmington’s Advisory Council for Youth Gun Violence Prevention, and co-creator of the Compassionate Schools Test Lab. In November 2018, Teri joined the Office of Equity and Innovation at the Delaware Department of Education as the Education Associate for Trauma-Informed Practices and Social and Emotional Learning. Under Teri’s leadership, the Department of Education is leading by example, achieving 100% trauma sensitive status, institutionalizing self-care, incorporating trauma awareness training into new employee onboarding, installing calming resource stations on every floor of the Department of Education. Outward facing work includes establishing a train-the-trainer model which has yielded a cohort of 134 LEA trainers, supporting school communities with a statewide compassionate schools learning collaborative focused on whole child development, differentiating professional learning on for educators and community partners from preschool through grade 12 on SEL, trauma, culturally responsive pedagogy, restorative practices, equitable and just schools, and mindfulness practices to reduce and eliminate the nonacademic barriers to learning. This work provided the infrastructure for Delaware to be named one of five Trauma Recovery Demonstration Project states with a $7.5 million award from the US Department of Education. Project THRIVE was named the 2022 Compassionate Champion in Delaware State Government. Most recently, Delaware Kids Count honored Teri with the 2020 Leadership Excellence in Government Award.

Dana Godek works predominantly on policy-related data to support initiatives that assist state education agencies as they plan, develop, and implement statewide SEL policies and practices. In that role, she systematically analyzes SEL and workforce readiness policies, as well as other related policies to advance the Collaborating States Initiative (CSI).

Prior to joining CASEL, Dana was the administrative director for special projects in Palm Beach County, Fla. She has served four urban districts in similar capacities, drawing on her expertise in government relations, strategic communications, resource development, and state/federal compliance. She led government relations and fund development efforts within the higher education community resulting in workforce education expansions in Florida.

Dana earned her doctoral degree in education and organizational leadership and is widely recognized as an authority on public education policy and resource development. She is a published author whose most recent novel explores the challenges of disenfranchised youth. She developed social and emotional learning curriculum for Florida Atlantic University, where she is also a graduate program adjunct professor.