Throughout my academic journey, I’ve found that departments driven by acceptance, curiosity, and trust were more positive and productive than those characterized by competition, blame, and criticism. More than policies, structures, or even talent, culture shaped whether people felt safe to speak up, ask questions, and take intellectual risks. This intuition was recently confirmed by Google’s Re:Work project (n.d.), which found that the single most important ingredient for team effectiveness is psychological safety.
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
