Humane educators are innovative social changemakers, using their skills and talents in a variety of ways. There is no typical humane educator. They teach in classrooms and communities; they start their own businesses; they work for non-profit organizations. They bring humane education to careers as diverse as filmmaking, social work, law, health care, veterinary medicine, and design.
Read stories about humane educators in action below.
Zoe is a blogger for Psychology Today (PT), and twice a month we share her blog posts here. Enjoy! Thirty years ago I became vegan. I’d long since stopped eating meat, which was challenging enough as a lover of steak, chicken, bacon, and lamb chops, but what would I put in my tea if not…
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Maddie Krasno is the San Francisco Bay Area Humane Educator for Farm Sanctuary and a graduate student in IHE’s M.A. program. We spoke with her about her work at Farm Sanctuary and the free environmental education curriculum she helped develop for classroom teachers. IHE: You’ve produced an environmental education curriculum for teachers. Can you tell…
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Most people consider empathy—the ability to share and understand the feelings of others —a good thing. Teachers often reach out to us at the Institute for Humane Education for help educating their students to be more empathetic. They recognize that academic education isn’t enough to produce healthy classrooms, let alone to prepare youth to be motivated and engaged citizens who…
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Mitch Bickman is the Director of Social Studies in the Oceanside School District and is the recipient of the 2016 New York State Social Studies Supervisory Association’s Supervisor of the Year Award. This award is given to professionals who have demonstrated the highest commitment to social studies education in New York State and have established…
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Joanna Doerfer is a certified elementary special education teacher who has worked in the New York State public school system since 2007. She graduated magma cum laude from The State University of New York at New Paltz and received dual Master’s degrees in Childhood Education and Special Education from The College of New Rochelle. She…
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For my post today, I interviewed Michael Charles Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison about their book, The Hypothetical Species, and their vision of a path toward a restorative future. Michael and Jane run the Dancing Star Foundation, an ecological non-profit devoted to animal protection, biodiversity conservation, and environmental education. For over thirty years they have researched and analyzed…
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IHE M.Ed. grad, Neil Hornish, is co-founder of the Compassionate Living Project, a nonprofit humane education organization. He is also a humane educator for the Ethical Choices Program and a Systems Project Engineer at United Technologies Aerospace Systems. Neil and his wife, Annie, who live in Connecticut, have been vegan for more than 20 years…
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IHE M.Ed. graduate Karen Patterson works as the director of humane education for the Humane Society of Huron Valley in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she built their humane education program from scratch. Karen spent 10 years as an elementary classroom teacher, where she incorporated humane education into her classroom lessons and activities. She and her…
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IHE M.Ed. grad Kelle Kersten has more than 20 years experience as an organic farmer/gardener. Currently Kelle lives and gardens veganically with her husband at their vegan homestead, Ahimsa Village, in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. She offers paid and work shares for friends to share in the bounty of her gardens. Kelle says, “I…
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IHE M.Ed. graduate Caroline Crane grew up near Detroit, Michigan. She earned her undergraduate degree and became certified to teach elementary education. She then worked for several years as a vet tech for the Humane Society of Huron Valley. And since 1994 Caroline has been the vice president of education for the Humane Society of…
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