About Us

Dr. Doug Carnine, Ph.D.

Doug Carnine. Ph.D., Founder, President, Board of Directors
Doug Carnine, Professor Emeritus at the University of Oregon, and President of the Choose Kindness Foundation spent the first 20 years of his career focused on improving the achievement of k-12 students who too often fail in school: children of poverty, limited English speakers, and students with disabilities. His scholarly works have been cited in over 5,000 books and journals worldwide. He spent the next 12 years of his career leading a campaign to increase the importance of evidence in education decision-making. This campaign involved working with business and government groups, ranging from large cities like Los Angeles to the US Congress and Department of Education. He received a presidential appointment, with Senate confirmation, to the National Institute for Literacy Advisory Board and later received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council for Exceptional Children. For the past 12 years, he has focused on mindful kindness, first coordinating the all-volunteer Spreading  Kindness Campaign for Lane County Oregon, and then launching the Eugene-based multimillion-dollar Choose Kindness Foundation/d.b.a. KindR Foundation that works with schools, businesses, prisons, and social service agencies across the US.

Dr. Linda Carnine, Ph.D.

Linda Carnine, Ph.D., Board of Directors
Linda McRoberts Carnine is presently the Vice President of the Foundation. She has been an avid supporter of all the kindness efforts she and her husband and founder, Doug Carnine, have been making in this arena for five decades. As an educator, she has been devoted to improving the achievement of at-risk youth. Linda received a master’s and doctorate from the University of Oregon (Curriculum & Instruction; Special education), as well as degrees from the University of Illinois and Lewis & Clark College. Linda has served as a teacher, school administrator, and curriculum developer in both public and Bureau of Indian Education schools. Her work has encompassed schools across the US serving underrepresented populations, serving as a Special Services Director (i.e., special education, Title I, Indian Education, bilingual, and early intervention) and as a consultant for the University of Oregon in the Western Regional Reading First Technical Assistance Center. Linda heads up her family’s project to return the use of lands to indigenous people in the areas surrounding Eugene, Oregon. She and Doug have created a land trust that allows tribes to use the conservation area for pow-wows, training seminars, and other tribal activities. She is also currently engaged in the revision of the Corrective Reading Decoding program, which she co-authored with Zig Engelmann and others.

Jerry Silbert, M.S.

Jerry Silbert, M.S., Board of Directors
Jerry Silbert has worked with the Direct Instruction Model for over 40 years. After completing his master’s at the University of Oregon, he spent considerable time at school sites on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and in New York City, working with principals and teachers implementing the University of Oregon Follow Through Project Model. Jerry has also served as a classroom teacher, working in a high-poverty elementary school, and supervised over 20 student teachers during his tenure. Jerry began authoring textbooks and instructional programs while he was teaching. He also co-authored several college textbooks with Dr. Douglas Carnine, as well as instructional programs for teaching reading, writing, math, and English as a Second Language. Silbert has also spent a significant amount of time serving as a consultant to elementary schools implementing Direct Instruction. His consulting work included 16 high-poverty schools in Chicago, and multi-school implementations of Direct Instruction in Ft. Worth, Houston, Dayton, Columbus, and Los Angeles, helping schools plan and implement the DI programs. Jerry has also served as an advisor to several community advocacy groups to improve students' performances in their communities. For close to a decade, Jerry worked as a national consultant with the Reading First project and has since been an integral contributor to the development and revision of Direct Instruction programs. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Choose Kindness Foundation since its inception. He actively works to develop and refine the kindness curriculum implemented in projects supported by the foundation.

Dr. Donna Dwiggins, Ph.D.

Donna Dwiggins, Ph.D., Executive Director:
After nine years of teaching in public schools, 5 of which involved teaching ESL in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Donna first met and worked for Doug Carnine as part of the University of Oregon Follow Through Project. She received her B.S. in Studio Art from the University of West Florida and both her M.S. and Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Oregon. The second phase of her career was spent in higher education where she developed, implemented, and administered a master’s degree program in special/correctional education. The program provided training for teachers and counselors/case managers working in prisons, juvenile training schools, mental health facilities, and public school programs serving at-risk children and youth. During her career in higher education, Donna taught at several universities and served as a Due Process Hearing Officer and State Level Review Officer for resolving disputes involving services to students with disabilities. Donna has also worked in and with highly distressed schools and systems serving large populations of minority students in high-poverty areas. She served as project director for a high-poverty inner-city elementary school designated by the state as a ‘turnaround’ school and then coordinated a 10-year district-wide initiative with 24 elementary and 7 middle schools in Guam. Additionally, she served as a consultant to the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academies, working with 8 schools for Indigenous peoples in Far North Queensland and the Northern Territories of Australia. Donna has founded two charter schools, with Guahan Academy being the first charter school in the US Insular Areas. These schools also served a large percentage of students who were academically and/or behaviorally at-risk, as well as culturally/linguistically diverse. She has served as a consultant to hundreds of schools and school systems focusing on both academic and behavioral interventions, as well as designing and implementing programs to serve violent/assaultive students.

Noreen Dunnells

Kim Cage-Mbuyamba, M.S., M.Ed.

Kimberly Cage-Mbuyamba, M.S., M.Ed., Director of KINDR Schools
Kim grew up in the inner city of New Orleans, LA, and holds an undergraduate degree from Howard University in business and accounting. Kim holds two master’s degrees, one in Education: Teaching & Learning from NOVA Southeastern University and one in School Counseling from SE Oklahoma State University. She worked in Pharmaceutical Sales for 10 years before joining a team to establish and run an alternative charter high school for at-risk youth, where she spent 10 years as an academic administrator. During her tenure at the school, she was instrumental in dramatically increasing the graduation rates of this underserved population. As an academic administrator of the charter school, she was also involved in a school-wide initiative to implement Direct Instruction curricula to improve the educational programming of students who had significant academic deficits that accompanied their behavioral challenges.

Following her involvement with the Direct Instruction curriculum project, Kim served as a group facilitator involved in the piloting of the Lasting Happiness curriculum and played an instrumental part in conducting a research study on the effectiveness of the curriculum in reducing teen stress and increasing life satisfaction. Her multifaceted journey encompasses sales and marketing, education, curriculum development, counseling, community engagement, and lasting positive impact. As part of her passion and dedication to positively impacting at-risk youth and the community, she took on the role of overseeing school projects for CKF (now KINDR Foundation) in the capacity of Director of KINDR Schools.

Shereen H. Eltobgy, MBA

Passionate about people’s transformation, Shereen is an alchemist of purpose, flow and well-being at work. She brings her expertise to our Foundation as Chief of Belief for KindR Workplaces along with her love for unleashing human potential.

 As a founding member of Delivering Happiness, the world-renowned culture coach-sulting firm, Shereen left an indelible mark on the landscape of corporate well-being and personal evolution. With a deep mastery of the Zappos culture, Shereen brings unparalleled expertise in the Science of Happiness and Human Flourishing, pioneering the happiness movement with fervor and dedication.

She has co-created programs that have reached over 350 companies across 35 countries, leading transformative workshops, retreats, and coaching that have elevated thousands of people globally—from CEOs and artists to startups and Fortune 100 leadership teams. Her work has left a lasting influence, elevating lives and workplaces through her unwavering passion for cultivating values-driven, purpose-led, and sustainably high-performing leaders and teams.

Shereen incorporates “the human technology” of Mindful Kindness, Joyful Wholeness and Flow into all facets of her work and life.  Her expertise has been recognized globally, including her work with the Prime Minister’s Office in Dubai, where she played a key role in the UAE National Happiness Campaign, leading to the establishment of the first female-led Ministry of Happiness. 

Shereen creates r/evolutionary work environments where inspired engagement, well-being, and mindful kindness are the cornerstones of sustainable success and a sense of aliveness. Join her in creating a workplace where people flourish —unleash the potential of your people and watch them shine!

When she’s not coaching, speaking or guiding, you’ll find her traveling with her husband Kent De Groot, where they write and host their Alchemy Retreats in exotic locales like the sacred temples of Egypt and the pristine beauty of Bali.

Justin Freeman

Justin Freeman brings his transformative leadership expertise to our Foundation as Managing Director. With extensive experience in operations and strategic consulting, Justin offers a unique blend of practical insight and visionary thinking to drive sustainable organizational change.

As an experienced business owner, general manager and board member, Justin intimately understands the challenges leaders face in today's complex business environment. This firsthand experience allows him to empathize deeply with executives and managers, providing guidance that is both compassionate and pragmatic. 

Justin's consultancy work focuses on revitalizing workplace cultures in companies, nonprofits, and university teams that have lost their way. He excels at helping organizations rediscover their cultural compass, guiding them from places of discord to environments where teams thrive and individuals flourish. His transformative programs have touched diverse organizations across the Pacific Northwest, demonstrating that compassionate leadership and high performance go hand in hand.

A passionate advocate for economic development, Justin's involvement with numerous boards has positioned him as a respected voice in shaping regional business ecosystems. His speaking engagements highlight his commitment to spreading the message of kinder, more effective workplaces.

Together with Shereen, Justin co-creates and delivers transformative curricula that blend empathetic leadership with high-performing organizational strategies. Their synergistic approach offers clients a comprehensive pathway to building workplaces where both people and profits flourish.

Join Justin in reimagining your organization's potential through kind and effective leadership. With his guidance, rooted in real-world operational experience, discover how fostering a culture of mutual respect and purposeful work can lead to sustained success. Unlock your team's collective potential and create a workplace that thrives on shared growth and purpose-driven achievement.

Dr. Bonnie Grossen, Ph.D.

Bonnie Grossen, Ph.D., Director of Evaluation
After completing both an undergraduate and graduate degree in Germanic Languages and Literature, Dr. Bonnie Grossen shifted her career focus to special education and working with at-risk students. She went on to complete a master's, doctorate, and postdoctoral internship at the University of Oregon, working closely with Dr. Carine on several projects. Bonnie has spent the majority of her career as an educational researcher, serving as both a research scientist at the University of Oregon and the Executive Director of the Center for Applied Research, a non-profit she founded. She has provided consulting to legislators on No Child Left Behind, consulted with the American Federation of Teachers’ Educational Research and Dissemination (ER&D) program, published scientific findings in books and journals, and served as the primary investigator or co-investigator in numerous published research reports. Her contributions have centered on bridging the gap between research knowledge and implemented educational practices. Through her experimental research, she has identified best practices for raising the academic performance of low-wealth, underserved, and disenfranchised middle and high school youth, culminating in California funding a statewide implementation of her model for low-performing middle schools, raising the performance of failing schools to expected levels of success. Following this success, her non-profit organization began implementing and training other entities to implement research-based interventions, raising the scores of underperforming subgroups of children in thousands of schools. Bonnie has been the principal investigator and author of 5 federally funded grants, served as co-investigator and research scientist on numerous other grants, and has extensive experience in carrying out planned comparisons and producing reports of the results. Her research acumen has garnered awards from the Council for Learning Disabilities, the  Association for Computers and Educational Technology, and the American Federation of Teachers.

Kathleen Rodriguez

Kathleen Rodriguez, Director of KindR Prisons 
Kathleen serves as the Director of the programs offered to inmates and their families by the Choose Kindness Foundation. In 2014, Kathleen created California’s Parole Suitability Hearing Support, CAPSHS, to assist individual prisoners and their support network with preparing for upcoming California Board of Parole Hearings. In 2021, CAPSHS joined forces with the Choose Kindness Foundation. Through the Choose Kindness Foundation, Kathleen and her team continue to provide individual support and self-help programs for those preparing for future Board of Parole Hearings or seeking to improve the quality of their lives through participation in the Mindful Kindness Program. She now leads the KindR Prisons Project team in supporting efforts to bring the INSIGHT and Mindful Kindness programs to inmates throughout California with further outreach extending to other surrounding states. She and the team have personally facilitated self-help groups within several California institutions and have instituted programs on the outside for the families of inmates who are taking the Mindful Kindness Program while incarcerated. She is also exploring ways to extend our services to local county, state, and federal institutions across the country.

Ernesto Rodriguez

Ernesto earned two associate degrees (Liberal Arts, Sociology) from Feather River College and a B.S. in Psychology from California Coast University while incarcerated. While serving life without the possibility of parole, Ernesto met Dr. Doug Carnine through his daughter, Leah Carnine, who was doing human rights work at the time. After almost eight years in solitary confinement, Ernesto enrolled in a G.E.D. program and began his transformational journey to becoming the person he is today. He enrolled in every self-help program available, including A.A. and N.A., and began reading and studying mindfulness practices. When released from solitary confinement and transferred to High Desert, a maximum security facility, Ernesto began to see the extent of the need for positive programming for his fellow prisoners. It was here that he first established programs for tutoring and began to break down racial lines that existed in the prison yard. Following his release from solitary confinement, Ernesto went on to earn his Addiction Counseling Certificate with CADPT and began providing addiction counseling to other prisoners. In 2016, California changed the laws for persons sentenced to life in prison for crimes committed before their 23rd birthday, and Ernesto was transferred to a lower security facility where he was able to continue his education. It was in his position as a Captain’s Clerk that he began to develop and implement the Culture for Collaboration Between Staff and Inmates Model, which is now part of the Choose Kindness programming offered in prisons. During this time, he collaborated with Doug to adapt Doug’s book, How Love Wins, into the Mindful Kindness Program (MKP) offered by the Foundation. He also collaborated with Kathleen Rodriguez to provide the INSIGHT Program, which is a recovery program that can assist prisoners in preparing for parole board hearings. The Culture of Collaboration Model he developed and instituted while in prison provides peer mentoring services, the MKP, INSIGHT, and Inmate Partner Violence courses sponsored by the Foundation, and helps new prisoners transition successfully into the facility. He continued to teach these courses until his parole in September of 2023. Upon his release, he assumed the Program Development Specialist position and began working full-time to promote the programming offered through the Foundation.

Linda Weaver

Bio coming soon

Jody R. Weiss

Jody R. Weiss is a social activist and serial social entrepreneur with a special focus on the transformation of consciousness through the lens of human rights.  

In her early career, Jody was a sports agent at International Management Group (IMG), representing 45 elite athletes such as Bill Rogers, Rob de Castella, Zola Budd, and Greta Waitz. For Mazda Motors, she signed Jackie Joyner, Flo Jo, Ben Johnson, Evelyn Ashford, Willie Banks, Ingrid Kristensen and other international stars to a multi-national track and field team with 213 athletes from 16 countries competing. At IMG, she learned how to package an "intellectual property" for greater global impact.

In 2002, Jody launched PeaceKeeper™ Cause-Metics™ and served as the company’s CEO. PeaceKeeper was one of the first cosmetics companies to offer 75%+ organic ingredients and to give donations to urgent human rights issues globally. PeaceKeeper was sold in 500+ stores, including Henri Bendel, Nordstrom, Fred Segal, ABC Planet & Home, Whole Foods, Wegmans, Sprouts, and many other retailers around the globe. Jody sourced organic ingredients from a biodynamic farm in Satara, India for her brand and gave the farmers a second source of income.

Jody is an Operating Partner to Chloe Capital, a fund and accelerator designed to deploy capital to diverse female entrepreneurs. The fund has had four M&A’s and the accelerator is so effective that women on average raise $2m. Jody is also the Founder of Women Funding the World, which is designed to galvanize women and men to increase the amount of funding going to diverse women founders from under 3% to 10% by 2035.

Jody has studied meditation since 1974 to gain a deeper understanding of techniques in non-duality and consciousness. She teaches these techniques, which are at the intersection of business, personal well-being and the transformation of consciousness, to people interested in experiencing themselves more deeply… and to see that we are profoundly interdependent. Please visit www.exploringrealitymaybe.com to listen to her podcast on the science of “consciousness”, which is the remedy for bias, racism & exploitation.

Anne Dwiggins

Bio Coming Soon