David Levine - Teaching Empathy Institute
Teaching Empathy Institute works to establish emotionally and physically safe learning communities for elementary, middle and high school students and the adults who work with them. Working in the Hudson Valley of New York, TEI creates tailor-made programs designed to foster dialogue about social culture building while strengthening the capacity for the infusion of empathy and compassion into all aspects of the learning experience.
Teaching Empathy Institute, SEL, Social and emotional learning, mindfulness, diversity, education, bullying, anti-bullying, k-12, learning, david levine, school of belonging, belonging, school safety
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About David Levine

David Levine, Founding Director of Teaching Empathy Institute (TEI) in the Hudson Valley of New York, is an educator, author, recording artist, and documentary film maker. He has 40 years of experience working in a multitude of educational settings as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, workshop facilitator and systems-change planning specialist. TEI works with schools across the country and around the world seeking to create caring and compassionate school cultures where social and emotional learning and emotional intelligence are foundational belonging and relationship-building practices.

David  has published numerous articles on belonging, empathy, and classroom culture building and has written six books, including A Year of Belonging and Field Guide to a School of Belonging, both of which were recipients of the Nautilus Book Award, American Book Fest Best Book Award and Indie Book Award in successive years (2019-2022). Two of David’s original recordings, Dance of a child’s dreams and Can you hear me? were Parents’ Choice Award Winners, and his film Finding Howard: The Legacy of a Song won the award for “Best Film on Youth Welfare” at the Helsinki Education Film Festival International in 2021.

At his core, David is an empathy educator and an artist whose expression is grounded in honor for self and others, communicating with compassion, and practicing honor for all children – seeing them as “Sacred Beings” filled with the potential for not only achievement, but also empathy for themselves and their fellow human beings.