Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D., is Professor, Psychology Department, Rutgers University, Director, Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab (www.secdlab.org), Co-Director of the Rutgers-based Academy for SEL in Schools, which offers online certificates in SEL Instruction and School Leadership (SELinSchools.org) and a member of the Leadership Team for SEL4NJ and SEL4US (www.SEL4US.org).  

He received the Joseph E. Zins Memorial Senior Scholar Award for Social-Emotional Learning from CASEL, the Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Network for Social-Emotional Competence.

Recent books include Morning Classroom Conversations: Build Your Students’ Social-Emotional, Character and Communication Skills Every Day, Addressing equity through culturally responsive education and SEL, Students Taking Action Together: 5 Teaching Techniques to Cultivate SEL, Civic Engagement, and a Healthy Democracy, Nurturing Students’ Character: Everyday Teaching Activities for Social-Emotional Learning, and Social-Emotional Learning Lab: A Comprehensive SEL Resource Kit (with Victoria Poedubicky),y. He writes a blog on SECD for Edutopia.