I have been invited to a large number of colleges and universities in the United States, Asia, and the Middle East to speak about the deleterious effects of having an uncivil, non-collegial person as a member of a department. It has been shown that one toxic person can essentially ruin a once-great department: people in the department disengage, do not teach or conduct research as well as they did in the past, stay home more often, have greater stress, take more personal and sick days, etc. The following is a partial list of strategies that have proven successful since I began studying this phenomenon in 2001. Spoiler alert: the problem is getting much worse!
Character (Still) Counts: Moral Injury and the Case for Character Education
Many academic leaders remember the Character Counts! initiative from the 1990s and early 2000s. It was visible in schools and youth programs nationwide, emphasizing as core values the Six Pillars
Teresa Maggard Stephens
June 15, 2026
