Linda Lantieri, MA — Director
Linda Lantieri, MA is a Fulbright Scholar, keynote speaker, and internationally known expert in social and emotional learning, conflict resolution, intergroup relations, and crisis intervention. Currently she serves as the Director of The Inner Resilience Program, a project of the Tides Center, which is an initiative that equips school personnel with the skills and strategies to strengthen their inner resilience in order to model these skills for the young people in their care. She is also the cofounder of the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP), which has been implemented at 400 schools in 15 school districts in the United States, with pilot sites in Brazil and Puerto Rico. Started in 1985, RCCP is now one of the largest and longest running research-based (K-8) school programs in social and emotional learning in United States. Linda is also one of the founding board members of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) whose central office is at the University of Illinois at Chicago. CASEL’s mission is to establish social and emotional learning as an essential part of education from preschool through high school worldwide.

Linda has 40 years of experience in education as a former teacher, assistant principal, director of an alternative middle school in East Harlem, and faculty member of the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Hunter College in New York City. She has served as a consultant to various institutions in the area of death education, including the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the New York City Public Schools where she trained the first Crisis Response Teams in 1988. She is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress from the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.

Linda is the coauthor of Waging Peace in Our Schools (Beacon Press, 1996), editor of Schools with Spirit: Nurturing the Inner Lives of Children and Teachers (Beacon Press, 2001), chapter contributor to Forever After: New York City Teachers on 9/11 (Teacher College Press, 2006), and author of Building Emotional Intelligence (Sounds True, 2008). She was selected as an Educational Innovator by the National Education Association, received the Richard R. Green Distinguished Educator Award and the Spirit of Crazy Horse Award for "creating courage in discouraged youth." She also received the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) 2001 Making a Difference Award.

Linda is a Senior Scholar at the Fetzer Institute, a nonprofit organization that supports research and education in the relationship between body, mind, and spirit. She is a Fellow of the George Lucas Educational Foundation and also serves as a Senior Educational Advisor of Operation Respect, which was founded by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary.

Keynoting Information

Dana McCloskey, MA — Deputy Director of Administration and Finance
Dana McCloskey oversees The Inner Resilience Program's finances (annual budgets & monthly expenditures/income), and the fundraising timeline. Ms. McCloskey has a Masters degree in Non-Profit Management from New York University's Wagner School. She has expertise in management, with a specific interest in conflict resolution and how leadership skills relate to emotional intelligence. Additionally, Ms. McCloskey holds a Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, from Syracuse University. She has provided direct counseling services to family and individuals for over seven years, in the roles of both therapist and social worker.

Charlotte de Lucia, MA — Deputy Director of Programs
Charlotte de Lucia is responsible for planning and coordination of The Inner Resilience Program’s program activities, as well as some service delivery and program development. Charlotte holds an MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and has advanced training in trauma and group psychotherapy. Prior to joining The Inner Resilience Program’s staff, Charlotte worked as a psychotherapist at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, serving parents, students, and staff in the NYC Public Schools through the Safe Schools Healthy Students initiative sponsored by SAMSHA. In addition, Charlotte provided psycho-educational workshops to parents and school personnel, and assisted teachers with relationship-based classroom management techniques. She also worked for the NYC Early Intervention program at Downstate. Prior to her work at Downstate, Charlotte worked with 9-11 related issues during her time as a crisis counselor with the FEMA Project Liberty Program.

Dragica Mikavica, BA — Program Assistant
Dragica Mikavica joined The Inner Resilience Program in May 2007 and provides programming and administrative support to the Director, Deputy Director of Programs and Deputy Director of Administration and Finance. Dragica is a recent graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government, with concentration in International Relations. She has experience with programming from the Woodhull Institute for Women’s Ethical Leadership and the NYC Department of Health’s Nurse-Family Partnership program.