Dara is a passionate educator, speaker, author, coach and consultant, committed to social justice and empowering people to know their inherent nobility. She is the author of The Heart of Education: Bringing Joy, Meaning and Purpose Back to Teaching and Learning. Grateful to be working in unity with her husband, Dara is living her passion and purpose as she uplifts people around the globe in her roles as a Virtues Project Master Facilitator ASCD Whole Child Faculty Member, Certified Jack Canfield Success Principles Trainer, Restorative Practices/Justice Coach for Restorative DC, Expert Consultant to Character.org, Adjunct Professor for Shepherd University, and Course Facilitator for the Social-Emotional Learning and Character Development Program at Rutgers University.
Honored as Disney's 2005 Outstanding Elementary Teacher of the Year, Educator of the Year for the National Association for Self Esteem in 2009 and Maryland's 2015 Mother of the Year, she is one of 10 teachers featured in the book, One on One with American's Most Inspiring Teachers.
In addition to 16 years as a classroom teacher, five years as an instructional technology specialist and three years as an instructional coach, Dara spent seven years as the Director of Education for The Virtues Project, five years as Director of Education for The "V" Channel and three years as the founding Board Chair for the Virtues Project International Association. Dara was the expert consultant with the USDE’s Web-based Education Commission where she helped write The Power of The Internet for Learning, and co-creator of the Early Childhood Technology Literacy Project, which was nominated by Steve Jobs of Apple Computer and won the Computerworld Smithsonian Award in Education and Academia in 2000.
Dara has a B.S. in Elementary Education and a M.Ed. in Education, Media, Design and Technology. She has a Graduate Certificate in Restorative Practices and is Nationally Board Certified in Early Childhood Education.
The mother of 2 adult children, Dara is humbled to be learning from them, as both of her children are champions for social justice. Dani is an educator and Jake is in healthcare.
Dara is committed to bringing one of her favorite quotes from Baha'u'llah to life, "So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth."
