Following more than 40 years as a distinguished public school educator, Gene Bedley founded the National Character Education Center, where he currently serves as executive director. The mission of the international center is to provide educators with the solutions and strategies they need to help develop "value-driven, respectful and responsible people." Previously, Bedley was a classroom teacher, curriculum coordinator and school administrator. Bedley's program "Values in Action," a comprehensive character education program based on seven Core Ethical Virtues, is being implemented in over 8,000 schools throughout the U.S., Canada, Africa, Singapore and Iran. Bedley is one of the early pioneers in comprehensive character development. Through his frequent national and international teacher seminars and his long-standing experience in training teachers on how to deal with bullying, harassment and social aggression, and the wide readership of his many publications on education reform, he continues to be an important contributor to the development of value-centered curricula and school discipline. He is currently a trainer for the Bureau of Education and Research, training teachers in Responsibility Management and Discipline and the Difficult Child. Gene has been selected by the Rachel's Challenge Organization as chairman of the National Educational Advisory Board. Rachel was the first student killed at Columbine High School in 1999.
California State University - Long Beach, M.A.
