Open Circle, provider of a unique, evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum and professional development for kindergarten through Grade 5, recently announced that Kamilah Drummond-Forrester, M.A., has been promoted to director.
Since joining Open Circle as a program manager in 2013, Drummond-Forrester has led teacher development programming and delivered training and coaching to teachers, administrators, and support staff. She is attuned to the changing landscape of education and works collaboratively with the Open Circle programming team to provide curricula, professional development, and implementation support that keeps the wellbeing of students at the center while meeting the needs of schools and educators. Drummond-Forrester’s passion for SEL, equity, and youth development is fueled by a professional career as a co-founder and director of wellness at a Boston charter school and her work as director of an award-winning, educationally based re-entry program at Suffolk County House of Correction.
Open Circle was awarded a Benenson Grant, an internal funding award through the Wellesley Centers for Women, for a research initiative, “Exploring the Impact of Gratitude Practices on Teacher Wellbeing.” Through June 2018, the social-emotional learning (SEL) program team will be surveying educators worldwide who have downloaded the project’s free gratitude materials to determine effectiveness of materials, cultural relevancy, and impact on teacher stress and student wellness, in the hopes of developing additional resources for use by educators and students. Open Circle also received a sub-award from the Barr Foundation to develop SEL programming and professional development for grades five through eight within the Equity Lab Charter School in Lynn, MA.
