Student Engagement & Positive Culture: A Discussion for School Leaders

Dr. Carol Johnson-Dean is among the nation’s most respected educational leaders. With more than 40 years of experience as a teacher, principal, and superintendent, Dr. Johnson-Dean served as superintendent of Boston Public Schools, Memphis City Schools, Minneapolis Public Schools, and St. Louis Park Public Schools. 

Carol served as Interim President of LeMoyne-Owen College, the only HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition,  she provided educational consulting services to numerous local and national school districts. She served as the Executive Director of New Leaders, South Region, a national organization, where she provided leadership development for aspiring principals and teachers across several southern states.    

Carol received the nation’s highest honor for urban education leadership, ”The Richard R. Green Award,” presented by the Council of the Great City Schools. Under her leadership, Boston Public Schools was recognized as one of “The Most Improved School Districts in the World” by McKinsey and Company. A strong advocate for Arts Education, she received the American Association of School Administrators/VHI “Save the Music Award.” Carol was also named “Minnesota Superintendent of the Year” and “Tennessee PTA Superintendent of the Year.”

Dr. Sheldon Berman is currently AASA’s Lead Superintendent for Social-Emotional Learning after serving as a superintendent across 28 school years in four districts—Hudson, MA; Jefferson County (Louisville), KY; Eugene, OR; and Andover, MA. He is the author of four books—Implementing Social-Emotional Learning: Insights from Districts’ Successes and Setbacks, The Ethical Educator: Pointers and Pitfalls for School Administrators, Children’s Social Consciousness and the Development of Social Responsibility, and Promising Practices in Teaching Social Responsibility—as well as numerous articles and book chapters on social-emotional learning, universal design for learning, special education, social responsibility, service learning, and education reform. He has been a contributor to the monthly Ethical Educator column in the School Administrator since January 2012.

Sheldon served as the President of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and has been a policy leader in three states in the areas of education reform policy, social-emotional learning, civic education, special education, and education funding. He was a member of the Council of Distinguished Educators of the National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development and was the primary author of the Commission’s SEL practice report. He received the 2003 Massachusetts Superintendent of the Year Award, the 2011 Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education, recognition in 2011 by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) as one of ten courageous superintendents for providing leadership for school desegregation, the Mary Utne O’Brien Award from the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) for lifetime achievement in implementing social-emotional learning in 2020, and AASA’s Distinguished Service Award for lifetime contribution to the field in 2022.

Dr. Steve Becton is a Chief Officer, Regional Operations and Organizational Equity. He joined Facing History in 2001 as a Program Associate.

Steve leads Facing History’s Office for Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging and assures that Facing History programs, policies, and culture align with current diversity, equity, and inclusion best-practices. He leads a team of Facing History staff who are working deeply in schools to create whole school culture and transformational educational experiences that would equip educators, while also empowering students to overcome the systemic issues that have placed them at risk.

Steve writes and speaks for Facing History on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging issues in and beyond the classroom. He presents at national conferences, writes blogs, and conducts workshops and webinars for educators and for the larger community centered on having courageous conversations about race and education.

Before joining Facing History, Steve was an exemplary educator, teaching high school social studies for 11 years. He was nationally recognized as a leader among educators, earning Junior Achievement’s State Teacher of the Year Award in 2005.

Becton has a BA in Economics from Rhodes College, a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership, and an advanced certificate in Urban Education.  He has an earned doctorate from The University of Memphis with a focus on the historical construct of race and its impact on school equity.