Education for Agape Love and Forgiveness

Those Who Will Lead Us

"...we praise the wise man....with respect to his state of mind...."
~Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

Masters of Ceremonies

Dr. Jichan J. Kim

Dr. Jichan J. Kim (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is an Associate Professor of Psychology and a Program Director at Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA where he regularly teaches courses on research methods, statistics, forgiveness psychology, and moral development among others. Dr. Kim was one of the recipients of 20219 Provost Award for Excellence in Research Mentorship at Liberty University. Dr. Kim served as president of Virginia Association for Psychological Science in 2021. Dr. Kim studied under Dr. Robert Enright at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and together with his colleagues, he has published over 20 journal articles most of which directly address the topic of forgiveness. He is married with three children and resides in Forest, VA.

Speakers

Dr. Judith D. Aldaba

Dr. Judith D. Aldaba is an educator with both the Master’s and doctoral degrees in education. She was both a faculty member and an administrator for 26 years at De La Salle University in Manila, the Philippines. One of her passions is teaching mathematics in Filipino, considering that English is the medium of instruction in Philippine schools. This led her to author and co-author a number of instructional materials in mathematics in Filipino. In 2014, she became the Assistant Superintendent of the 24 parochial schools in the Archdiocese of Manila. This appointment gave her the opportunity to begin introducing forgiveness education in the member schools.

Dr. Paul Coleman

Dr. Paul Coleman is a clinical psychologist for the past thirty-six years and has a private practice in Dutchess County, New York. His specialties include Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and grief. He is the author of a dozen self-help books—his first being THE FORGIVING MARRIAGE published in 1989 and his most recent book is FINDING PEACE WHEN YOUR HEART IS IN PIECES published in 2014. He has been a guest expert on numerous television shows including TODAY and has been interviewed in dozens of radio stations across the country including WABC and NPR. Paul’s avocation is acting. He has appeared in over forty—mostly amateur—stage productions and recently appeared as a grief therapist in the HBO series “I Know This Much Is True” starring Mark Ruffalo. Paul is happily married for thirty-nine years. He and his wife have three children and four grandchildren.

Ms. Chen Chuan-Man

Ms. Chen Chuan-Man is a Grade 5 teacher in the Gangping Primary School in Chiayi City, Taiwan. She became a permanent teacher within the national primary schools at the age of 50. She graduated from the Institute of Education for the Elderly of the Department of Adult and Continuing Education of National Chung Cheng University. From 2015 to 2022, Chen served as the TFT (Teach For Taiwan) Expert Supervisor. Over the years, she has won many awards including the Special Excellent Teacher of Chiayi City in 2019 and first place for the Service Altruism Award in 2021.

Dr. Robert Enright

Dr. Robert Enright holds the Aristotelian Professorship in Forgiveness Science within the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, is a licensed psychologist, and co-founder of the International Forgiveness Institute. He is the first to publish a scientific study on the topic of person-to-person forgiveness, in 1989. Dr. Enright is the author or editor of seven books and over 150 publications centered on social development and the psychology of forgiveness. He pioneered research on Forgiveness Therapy and forgiveness education. His latest endeavors include forgiveness education for students in various world communities (for example, Iran, Israel, Monrovia, Northern Ireland, the Philippines, and Taiwan) and Forgiveness Therapy with those in correctional institutions. This year (2022) the American Psychological Association honored the psychological science of forgiveness by giving Dr. Enright its highest award, the Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology.

Dr. Suzanne Freedman

Dr. Suzanne Freedman is a Professor in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Her dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was a landmark study that was published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology on forgiveness with incest survivors. Dr. Freedman’s areas of expertise include the psychology of interpersonal forgiveness, forgiveness education and intervention, moral development, incest and sexual abuse, eating disorders, early adolescent development, and at-risk adolescents. She has presented at numerous national and international conferences on the psychology of interpersonal forgiveness

Ms. Orit Haim

Ms. Orit Haim has 27 years of experience teaching in elementary schools and leads the domain of science learning in Rimonim Kiryat-Tivon Elementary School in Kirgat Tivon in Israel. During her career, Orit has taken an active part in developing new curricula in which she assimilates both values and skills. Orit Haim was born and raised in Israel, is married and has three boys. She creates sculpture and painting as a hobby. Orit holds an MA in Political Science from Haifa University, a BA in Humanities and Social Sciences, and has a senior teacher license.

Ms. Maisalon Ali Kaiyal

Ms. Maisalon Ali Kaiyal, an English language teacher with 18 years of experience, works in Alnajah Elementary School in the village of Makir in Israel. She is an award-winning counselor for English pedagogy, having developed unique teaching methods incorporating new technology into teaching. Her initiative is supported by the "Educational Initiatives Fund" at the Ministry of Education in Israel. Maisalon specializes in English language teaching and is in her first year of studies toward the Master's degree in Implementing Technology in Education at the University of Haifa. She is inspired daily by her husband and three children.

Mr. Cormac McCabe

Mr. Cormac McCabe graduated from Queens University Belfast and received his Post Graduate Certificate of Education from the University of Lancaster in England. He has been teaching for over 25 years to Primary 7 (10-11 year old students). He currently teaches in St. Malachy’s Primary School, Castlewellan, and has been Vice Principal of the school for the past 8 years. He is married with 3 children and has a very active interest in all sports, coaching many of the children, whom he has taught, in his local sports club.

Ms. Jiahe Wang Xu

Ms. Jiahe Wang Xu is a PhD candidate in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interest is in forgiveness and the development of agape love. Collaborating with other scholars, Jiahe published a very first empirical study discussing The Development of Forgiveness and Other-focused Love in the Journal of Psychology and Theology. Together with her colleague, Hannah Rapp, they identified the significant increase of forgiveness and reduction of anger among children and adolescents through a meta-analytic investigation of randomized controlled trials of forgiveness education studies. She currently serves as the co-principal investigator of the project funded by John Templeton Foundation: implementation of forgiveness education to increase agape love in three cultural distinct areas: Belfast, Israel/Palestine, and Taiwan.

Mr. Philip Lavery

Mr. Philip Lavery is the Vice Principal of Mount Saint Michael’s Primary School, Randalstown, Northern Ireland. The school is values based, one of which is forgiveness. He has been in this post for 19 years and has been teaching for 32 years. He is the Chair of a 21 school educational partnership, Moving Forward Together, with a focus on collaborative working and peace building. He is a firm believer in the positive power of exercise and the outdoors, and as such, his school promotes the Daily Mile in school, a perfect mix of both and accessible to all pupils. The school has promoted the benefits of daily exercise on the mental and physical health of pupils and staff.

Mr. Sylvester Jackson

Mr. Sylvester Jackson is the Lead Organizer for EXPO (Ex-incarcerated People Organizing) He was born and raised in Chicago Illinois where he got involved in street gang organizing at the age of 19. He is self educated, having obtained his H.S.E.D. while serving a 20 years sentence in the state of Wisconsin.Prior to being released from prison, Sylvester made a decision to dedicate his life to help end mass incarceration. In November of 2019, Sylvester received the Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition of the Elijah O’Neal Award of Excellence and the Elijah O’Neal Service Award by Project Return for his commitment to aid those who are returning to their communities after incarceration.

Mr. Jonathan Little

Mr. Jonathan Little enjoyed a long and successful career in radio, as a newsman, disc jockey, music director, program director, operations manager, general manager, and owner. In 1998 Mr. Little left radio management and helped launch TroyResearch, a consumer opinion market research company, that does worldwide entertainment and media research for radio, television, and movie clients, including Sony Motion Pictures. In 2021 he bought the company. TroyResearch continues to serve its clients with opinion research and perceptual studies with Mr. Little in the role of president, www.troyresearch.net . Jonathan Little has been recognized with a number of awards over the years including the honor of being inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

Ms. Hannah Rapp

Ms. Hannah Rapp is a PhD candidate in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hannah works as a research assistant with Dr. Robert Enright validating measures of agape love and implementing forgiveness education interventions for primary school children in three world nations, including, Israel, Northern Ireland, and Taiwan. Hannah was a 2020 Future Institute Research Center (FIRC) Graduate Scholarship Award recipient and has presented at relevant conferences, such as the WES-Center for International Higher Education Conference (2021), and the American Psychological Association convention (2020)

Ms. Yu Yi-Jen

Ms. Yu Yi-Jen currently is a teacher in Tainan City East District Shengli National Elementary School. In 2016, she passed the Ministry of Education Chinese Teacher Certification. Also in 2016, she was given the recognition of being the Exceptional Teacher in Special Education of Tainan City. Currently, she is a PhD graduate student in Cognitive Sciences (all-English program) at National Chung Cheng University (CCU). She has two Ministry of Education awards: a) "Innovative Application of Information Technology in Teaching and Learning and Model Team" award in 2013 and b) "Innovative Use of Information Technology in Teaching and Learning and Model Team" award in 2010.