An Ecosystem of Work
The Center for Education Ecology convenes and supports a growing ecosystem of research, educational, civic, and translational initiatives designed to connect human development, sustainability, learning, moral development, and long-term societal flourishing.
The initiatives below explore different dimensions of education ecology, from early childhood development and teacher support to sustainability, youth leadership, spirituality, moral development, public scholarship, and translational innovation. While each initiative has its own focus and independent platform, together they contribute to a broader vision of educational systems that cultivate human flourishing and social transformation.
Organized through CEE
Programs, platforms, and research initiatives directly organized and supported through the Center for Education Ecology.
Whole-Child Framework
NEST (Nurturing Environments in Schools Together) is a secular, research-based whole-child framework that helps schools cultivate nurturing developmental ecosystems supporting relationships, wonder, meaning, nature connection, inner life, and flourishing. Designed for early childhood and elementary education, NEST integrates developmental science, SEL, DAP, trauma-informed practice, teacher wellbeing, family engagement, and nature-based learning into a coherent schoolwide culture framework.
Research
The Study of Love explores love as a measurable and developable dimension of human flourishing. The initiative combines research, reflective practice, longitudinal development, and community participation to investigate how individuals and groups cultivate compassion, generosity, moral growth, relational wellbeing, and transcendent forms of care over time. The project seeks to bridge scientific inquiry, practical transformation, and long-term societal flourishing.
Measurement
The Love Development Index is a developmental measurement framework designed to assess growth in loving attitudes, behaviors, moral orientation, and relational capacities across time. Developed through the Study of Love initiative, the framework combines theory, psychometric development, self-reflection, and longitudinal measurement to support both research and personal transformation.
Youth Leadership
Youth Lead Change is a youth development initiative that empowers young people to contribute meaningfully to their communities through leadership, service, reflection, and collaborative learning. The initiative emphasizes moral development, civic participation, social responsibility, and youth empowerment through structured small-group experiences and community-centered action.
Education for Sustainability
TeachESD is an educational initiative focused on Sustainability and Altruism Project-Based Learning (SAPBL), a framework that integrates sustainability, altruism, civic engagement, and real-world problem solving into educational practice. Through teacher training, sustainability coaching, curriculum development, and project-based learning systems, TeachESD helps educators connect academic learning to meaningful environmental and community challenges while supporting long-term student engagement in sustainability and civic action.
Community Partnership Network
The Altruistic Sustainability Network (ASN) is a local partnership ecosystem built around schools and surrounding communities to support sustainability, civic engagement, and altruistic citizenship through project-based learning. The ASN model connects schools, nonprofits, businesses, parks, local government, residents, and other community stakeholders so that children and youth can participate in meaningful community problem solving connected to sustainability goals. Sustainability Coaches help develop and coordinate local ASNs by building school-community partnerships, identifying local resources and opportunities, and helping schools evolve into centers for community empowerment and environmental stewardship.
Professional Advancement
Teacher Promotion is a workforce advancement initiative designed to help educators navigate professional growth, credentialing, advancement opportunities, leadership development, and long-term career pathways. The initiative seeks to strengthen educator retention and professional flourishing by making advancement systems more accessible, supportive, transparent, and strategically aligned with the long-term development of the education workforce.
Early Childhood Workforce Development
Teaching to Thrive is an early childhood workforce development initiative designed to support new educators during the onboarding process through online professional learning, individualized coaching, reflective practice, and practical classroom support. The initiative helps early childhood programs strengthen teacher preparation, retention, wellbeing, and instructional quality while supporting new educators as they transition successfully into the profession.
Spiritual Education
Spiritual Classroom is an educational platform dedicated to exploring how spiritual, moral, and reflective dimensions of human development can be meaningfully integrated into educational environments. The initiative provides ideas, resources, practices, and frameworks that support educators and communities in cultivating compassion, purpose, unity, ethical reflection, and deeper dimensions of human flourishing within classroom and community life.
Public Scholarship
Light Worlds is a translational innovation and public scholarship initiative dedicated to transforming educational and social research into accessible public-facing tools, platforms, media, and learning experiences. The project explores how ideas, research, and moral imagination can be translated into scalable systems that support human development, collective flourishing, and social transformation.
Affiliated & Partner Initiatives
Independent organizations and research centers with which the Center for Education Ecology collaborates around shared questions and community work.
One Living System
Although each initiative addresses a distinct area of inquiry or practice, they are connected through a shared interest in how educational systems can cultivate human flourishing, civic participation, sustainability, moral development, spiritual growth, and long-term societal wellbeing. Together, these initiatives contribute to the broader mission of the Center for Education Ecology.