What We Believe

We believe that what counts most as a leader committed to building formative and flourishing institutions is to develop practical wisdom.

Practical wisdom, what Aristotle called “good sense,” is the disposition to perceive and deliberate well in context, to aim at what matters most and adjudicate competing goods, so we can take the right actions, at the right time, for the right reasons, and help others to do the same. 

We believe that every leader has the capacity to grow in practical wisdom.

Highlights: Engagement & Reach

What We Do

The Practical Wisdom Project at AAI explores questions at the heart of leadership for flourishing:

• What do ancient wisdom and contemporary research reveal about the power of phronesis in human flourishing?

• How can we harness its power to create and sustain formative institutions that serve the greater good?

• How do leaders learn to make mission-aligned strategic decisions–and empower others to do the same–from day to day operations to crisis management?

• How do leaders invest in people in ways that support both human flourishing and high performance?

About the Practical Wisdom Project

The Practical Wisdom Project is a signature initiative of the Abigail Adams Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to fostering intellectual and moral inquiry in the liberal arts tradition. This initiative equips educators and institutional leaders with the habits and tools to cultivate character, wisdom, and human flourishing—making formative leadership education more widely accessible across the nonprofit and education sectors. To learn more, see Journal of Education: “The Practical Wisdom Framework: A Compass for School Leaders” (Bohlin 2022).

The Wisdom at Work Fellowship is supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

To support the mission of the Practical Wisdom Project, donations may be made directly to the Abigail Adams Institute.

Our Partners Include:

The Practical Wisdom Project also hosts seminars on:

• Courageous Dialogue: Practical Wisdom for Navigating Difficult Conversations

• Learning from Mistakes: Practical Wisdom for Mentors & Young Professionals

• The Schooling of Desire: Practical Wisdom from Philosophy, Art & Film

Team

Karen Bohlin, EdD is 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 and principal of the Practical Wisdom Group, LLC.

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), and "Educating the Heart: Why Poetry Matters” in Educating for Character Through the Arts (Routledge, 2023).

Prior to her work here, Dr. Bohlin served as head of the Montrose School in Medfield, MA, where she founded the LifeCompass Institute for Character & Leadership, 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. 

Dr. Bohlin began her career as a middle and high school English teacher, drama director and cross country coach. She earned her doctorate in education and was appointed Assistant Professor of Education and Director of  the Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character at Boston University. The first ethics center in the country to focus on the education of teachers and school leaders, here, she led professional development programs for thousands of educators, consulted with state departments and ministries of education, and helped to shape policy and programs worldwide. Co-architect of the National Schools of Character Program, she also co-led pioneering research on character education and teacher preparation in higher education.  

While Head of Montrose School, she 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. 

A highly sought-after speaker and consultant , Dr. Bohlin currently leads the executive education program Practical Wisdom for Agile Leadership (PWAL)  and provides onsite professional development and Communities of Practice for schools, universities, and parent organizations, equipping educators with the mindset and skillset they need to shape institutions committed to flourishing. 

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.

Colette Kania is currently the Chief of Staff at the Practical Wisdom Project in Cambridge, MA, where she supports the Wisdom at Work: Revitalizing School Leadership Research-Practice Partnership. Colette has teaching experience as well as a background in education policy in the state of Florida. She graduated from the University of Florida with a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Education Sciences concentrating in Schools, Society, and Policy. Her experience expands across disciplines in human formation as a founder of a woman’s personal development program serving 300 young women and creating a habit-forming application for a platform that reaches over 5 million individuals monthly.

Andrea Rolla began her career as an elementary school teacher. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University, her master’s degree in Educational Research Methodology from the University of Oxford, and her doctorate in Language and Literacy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has held research, policy, and leadership roles at Harvard University, WestEd, the Chilean Ministry of Education, and Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, and has worked as a consultant for international organizations including the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Her work focuses on strengthening teacher–child interactions, language and literacy development, and the design of effective professional learning for educators.

Dr. Mark B. Pacheco is an Associate Professor in UF's College of Education and Affiliate Faculty of the Hamilton School. His research focuses on character education within diverse classroom contexts, and has been funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest, and the National Science Foundation. With the Practical Wisdom Project, he lends his expertise in design-based research and professional development. Dr. Pacheco works on varied character education projects in his teaching and research, including the Classical Education Initiative at the Hamilton School, the Building a Better World Exhibit at the Museum of Discovery Science in Fort Lauderdale, and the Human Dignity Curriculum with the World Youth Alliance. He lives in Bermuda with his wife, Ashley, and their two young children.

Manee  Ngozi Nnamani is a researcher and educator passionate about promoting human flourishing through education and learning, with a special focus on the role of technology and the education of girls. As Co-Pedagogy Lead at the Practical Wisdom Project at the Abigail Adams Institute, she serves as the chief implementer across all teaching and learning strands and the primary driver of coherence between design-based research and pedagogical implementation. Her leadership in education spans more than a decade across Nigeria, Spain, and the United States. In Nigeria, she has played a central leadership role at The Lagoon School in Lagos. In Spain, she developed a Digital Ethics curriculum for schools. In the United States, she has contributed to research and design projects at the intersection of technology, character, and education, including a research role at the MIT Teaching Systems Lab—a computer science education researcher–practitioner partnership with over 16 schools in Massachusetts. She has also contributed to the development of resources for Coursera, SubjectToClimate, Teach For All, and executive education programmes. Manee earned her B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, followed by a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, and a Master’s in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology from Harvard University.

Miroslava Duranková is a co-founder and director of the Great Works Academy - a program dedicated to promoting character development of students and their teachers through a powerful pedagogical encounter with great stories and art. Designed to awaken young people’s desire for wisdom and beauty, students leave the program with a demonstrated commitment to  pursue virtue in their own life.  Miroslava earned her  Masters in Character Education from the University of Birmingham (UK) and completed a mixed methods thesis on The importance of moral imagination and desire in character education. She leads professional development initiatives and collaborates with experts in the field of character education worldwide, including  the United States, Spain, UK, and Slovakia. She has been a part of the Practical Wisdom Project since 2022, when she served a Visiting Scholar at the Abigail Adams Institute and researched the impact of the Practical Wisdom Framework at Montrose School.  Miroslava is currently developing a character education program, using the Practical Wisdom Framework™at the Citadela Elementary Schools- the first elementary schools in Slovakia rooted in principles of classical education.

Maura Ronayne is the Director of Marketing & Communications at the Abigail Adams Institute and its subprogram, the Practical Wisdom Project. She leads the Institute’s branding, communications, and digital presence, while also overseeing event programming and all community-facing initiatives. With a professional background in marketing and publishing, Maura brings a strong foundation in strategy and storytelling to her work. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2020 with a B.A. in English and a minor in Government.

The Practical Wisdom Project is housed at the Abigail Adams Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.