Meet Karen
Karen Bohlin, EdD is a leadership coach and consultant. She works with educators in both K-12 and higher education, as well as with parents and leaders of formative institutions, helping them to operationalize their formative mission. Director of the Practical Wisdom Project at the Abigail Adams Institute and Research Affiliate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science.
With three decades of leadership experience in both secondary and higher education, Dr. Bohlin is an internationally recognized thought leader in character education and applied virtue ethics.
Author and co-author of numerous publications including the bestseller Building Character in Schools (Jossey-Bass 1999); Teaching Character Education Through Literature: Awakening the Moral Imagination (Routledge 2005)/Educando el Carácter a Través de la Literatura (2020); Happiness and Virtue: Beyond East and West: Toward a New Global Responsibility (Tuttle 2012); Citizenship and Higher Education (Routledge, 2005); and the downloadable resources Stress Tests of Character; The Courageous Dialogue Toolkit: Practical Wisdom for School Leaders (2021), her most recent publication is the chapter "Educating the Heart: Why Poetry Matters” in Educating for Character Through the Arts (Routledge, 2023).
Senior scholar at Boston University's Center for Character and Social Responsibility and director emerita of BU's Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character, she served as assistant professor of education and then as head of school at Montrose in Medfield, MA, where she founded the LifeCompass Institute for Character & Leadership, a lab school community of practice. While Head of Montrose School, she secured and developed its permanent campus, doubled enrollment and established the school’s international reputation as a flagship institution with vibrant student, faculty, parent and alumnae engagement, remained a Senior Scholar at Boston University’s Character and Social Responsibility (CCSR), and co-founded in 2018 the Kern Partners in Character and Educational Leadership (KPCEL), a consortium of over 30 institutes in both higher education and K-12 schools.
Dr. Bohlin currently teaches The Practical Wisdom Framework™ in her executive education program Practical Wisdom for Agile Leadership and professional development offerings, equipping audiences with the principles and research-based practices and protocols they need to shape institutions committed to flourishing.
A highly sought after speaker and advisor, she has worked with schools, universities, parents, state departments and ministries of education around the world. Co-architect of the National Schools of Character Program, sabbatical fellow at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues in the UK, editorial reviewer and contributor to the Journal of Character Education and the Journal of Education, she is co-founder of the the Kern Partners in Character & Educational Leadership, a consortium of over 30 institutes in both higher education and K-12 schools.
A guest on numerous podcasts, including National Public Radio's Merrow Report and CBS's Early Show, Dr. Bohlin has also been interviewed for Parents Magazine, US News and World Report, Reader's Digest, New York Times, Boston Globe, Newsweek, and Ladies Home Journal.