The CSCD Staff
Philip M. Brown, Ph.D.
Phil Brown has been doing school-based social skills development work for more than 30 years. After working in local and county programs, he directed substance abuse prevention programs for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and then joined the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), where for 18 years he coordinated student services programs, including creation of the New Jersey Character Education Network. He has been a principal investigator on three U.S. Department of Education Partnerships in Character Education grants. With support from the NJDOE and the Center for Applied Psychology, he established the Center for Social and Character Development (CSCD) at Rutgers University in 2002.
Virginia G. Stillson, Psy.D.
Virginia G. Stillson is currently managing the Caring Schools Inclusion Project (CSIP) of the 2006-2010 U.S. Department of Education Partnerships in Character Education Grant which involves twelve middle schools throughout New Jersey and the evaluation components of FCSCCE, PACES, and other projects at CSCD. Previously, Virginia managed the evaluation and report writing for CSCD 2002-2006 U.S. Department of Education Partnerships in Character Education Grant and, before joining the Center, was a senior consultant with a violence prevention program managed by the Center for Applied Psychology at Rutgers. She received her Psy D in Organizational Psychology from The Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University.
Rebecca Sapora-Day, M.A.T.
Rebecca Sapora-Day has managed program services for the Center since its inception, working to provide high quality conferencing, networking and professional development opportunities to the network of character educators throughout New Jersey. Her responsibilities include professional development planning, project design and implementation. She also oversees the Center's communications efforts, including managing the Center's website and its electronic newsletter - the Character Education Network. Over 2600 educators currently receive this monthly update containing news, professional development opportunities, grant and funding opportunities; program resources and links to other character education websites.
Ms Sapora-Day's professional career spans 35 years in art education, international education and character education curriculum development. She is a graduate of Douglass College, and holds a Master's degree in Elementary Education from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Thilda Coyman
Thilda Coyman has worked at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey for 11 years and has been with the Center for Social and Character Development at Rutgers University since its inception in 2003. She is the primary organizer of all CSCD trainings and conferences and handles all communication and publicity efforts for such events. As Program Administrator for the CSCD at Rutgers, Thilda also serves as the primary budget manager for the 4-year Partnerships in Character Education Program federal grant, and is therefore, a friend to us all on pay day!
Born in Central Africa and having traveled much of the world in earlier careers, Thilda was driven to enter the field of character education because of the experiential components that it affords to students.