I fell down a rabbit hole recently. Despite trying to convince myself that I had collected enough literature to be able to start writing my new book on women’s leadership and burnout in higher education, I read this article in the Harvard Business Review about passion for work and had to track down the study by Robert J. Vallerand and colleagues that inspired it (which then led to reading a chunk of the research on passion at work). In that study, “On the Role of Passion for Work in Burnout: A Process Model,” the authors argue that past research on burnout cannot “explain why, in the same environment, one individual is thriving whereas another one is experiencing burnout symptoms” (p. 290).
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
