PLATO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

(Note: You can click on any Board Member's headshot to view their biography)

Allison Cohen
President
Langley High School

Allison Cohen, President of PLATO, is an Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Philosophy teacher at Langley High School in McLean, VA.  She is dedicated to bringing quality philosophy curricula to high schools across the nation and expanding opportunities for students to engage in philosophical questioning and reasoning. Allison has presented papers at several national conferences on topics such as: critical thinking, argument diagramming, affirmative action, and genetic enhancement.  She is an adjunct professor at American University where she teaches Essentials of Effective Instruction for the Department of Education.  Allison also serves on the Board of Directors for Street Law, a national nonprofit committed to preserving and enhancing civics education in our schools, and the Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum.


Wendy Turgeon
Vice President
St. Joseph's College

Wendy C. Turgeon is a Professor of Philosophy at St. Joseph’s College-NY.  She has been involved in 'Philosophy with/for Young People' for many years and has developed courses and programs for undergraduates and graduate students in introducing philosophy in pre-college education. She has served on the boards of ICPIC, PLATO, and NAACI, three organizations that work to promote philosophy throughout education and advocate for children as thinkers and members of society.

Kelly Laas, secretary for PLATO, also works as the Librarian of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Here she works on developing resources and strategies to help integrate ethics into university-level courses and research projects in engineering and the sciences. She is also currently the Upper Midwest Regional Representative for the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl and has worked extensively with colleagues from the Chicago area to help organize the Chicago High School Ethics Bowl. Kelly is currently the secretary of the PLATO executive board and the managing editor of P4: Pre-College Philosophy and Public Practice.

Stephen Kekoa Miller, Humanities Department chair at Oakwood Friends School and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, has taught Philosophy and Religious Studies for the past 18 years in Poughkeepsie NY. Stephen has developed a wide range of courses from first grade philosophy through upper level college courses, and a philosophy series for parents and community members.  Stephen’s research interests lately have centered on pre-college philosophy, philosophy of education, virtue ethics and philosophy of emotion.  Stephen is also the Associate Chair of the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Pre College Instruction in Philosophy and on the Town of Poughkeepsie Ethics Board.  Stephen served on  the Teachers Advisory Council of the National Humanities Center. Along with being PLATO's treasurer, he is also on the Development Committee and Education Committee.


Michael Burroughs
Past President
California State University, Bakersfield

Michael Burroughs, past-president of PLATO, also serves asbthe Director of the Kegley Institute of Ethics and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Bakersfield. He recently published a co-authored book (with Jana Mohr Lone) entitled Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialogue in Schools (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016). This book focuses on the theory and practice of doing philosophical and ethical work with young children. Michael also researches and has published several articles and chapters in the areas of community engaged philosophy, philosophy with children, ethics, education, critical philosophy of race, and social epistemology.


Jana Mohr Lone
Founder and President Emeritus
University of Washington

Jana Mohr Lone is director of the Center for Philosophy for Children and Affiliate Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington. She is the author of the books Seen and Not Heard (2021) and The Philosophical Child (2012); co-author of the textbook Philosophy in Education: Questioning and Dialogue in Schools (2016); co-editor of Philosophy and Education: Introducing Philosophy to Young People (2012); and she has published dozens of articles about children’s philosophical thinking. A frequent speaker about philosophical inquiry with children, she has been leading philosophy classes with students from preschool to graduate school for 25 years and working with educators, administrators, and families around the United States and internationally. Jana is the founding president of PLATO and the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Questions: Philosophy for Young People.

Roberta Israeloff has directed the Squire Family Foundation since its inception in 2007.  The Foundation advocates for the inclusion of philosophy in elementary and secondary schools, and was a co-founder of both PLATO and the National High School Ethics Bowl. She co-edited Philosophy and Education: Introducing Philosophy to Young People, and is on the editorial board of Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice.  In her thirty-five-year career as a writer, she has published numerous essays, short stories, reviews, and memoirs, including, mostly recently, What Went Right:  Lessons from Both Side of the Teacher’s Desk, co-written with her former English teacher.


Claire Katz
Board Member
Texas A&M University

Claire Katz is Associate Dean of Faculties and Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University where she also holds the Murray and Celeste Fasken Chair in Distinguished Teaching in the Liberal Arts and where she was recently named a Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence. She conducts research and teaches courses at the intersection of philosophy, education, gender, and Jewish studies. Her major publications include, Growing Up with Philosophy Camp: How Learning to Think Develops Friendship, Community, and a Sense of Self (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020); Levinas, Judaism and the Feminine: the Silent Footsteps of Rebecca (Indiana 2003); Levinas and the Crisis of Humanism (Indiana 2013); and An Introduction to Modern Jewish Philosophy (IB Tauris/Bloomsbury 2014). Returning to her original academic interest in pre-college philosophy, she is the founder and director of P4C Texas and the Aggie School of Athens Philosophy Summer Camp for Teens. She was a 2019 recipient of the APA prize for Excellence in Teaching Philosophy. 


Janice Moskalik
Board Member
Seattle University

Janice Moskalik is an Instructor in the Philosophy Department at Seattle University. She has also worked with the UW Center for Philosophy for Children for a number of years and is a member of their Board of Directors. Janice received her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Washington, and her LLB from the University of British Columbia. Her main research areas are ethics, philosophy of law, and philosophical pedagogy. Recently, UW’s Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities has supported Janice’s research in philosophical pedagogy, awarding her two Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships through their project Reimagining the Humanities PhD.


Deborah S Mower
Board Member
University of Mississippi

Deborah S. Mower is the Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Hume Bryant Professor of Ethics and an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Mississippi, specializing in moral psychology, applied ethics and public policy, and moral education. She is the Past-President of the Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum. She co-edited two volumes, the first Civility in Politics and Education (with Wade Robison in 2012) as well as Developing Moral Sensitivity (with Wade Robison and Phyllis Vandenberg in 2015). She also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to co-direct (with Phyllis Vandenberg) a 2016 Summer Institute on Moral Psychology and Education.


John Torrey
Board Member
SUNY Buffalo State

John Torrey is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Provost Doctoral Fellow at SUNY Buffalo State. He holds a BA in Philosophy and Spanish from Morehouse College and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Memphis and is currently completing his Ph. D at the University of Memphis. His research interests are in African-American philosophy, specifically how social recognition impacts moral rights possession in order to explain why claims to rectify unjust harms against African-Americans continue to be ignored, social and political philosophy, applied ethics, as well as diversifying professional philosophy and the philosophical canon.  He has previously served as a coordinator with the precollege philosophy program at University of Memphis, Philosophical Horizons.


Ariel Sykes
Board Member
Kent Place School

Ariel Sykes is the Assistant Director of the Ethics Institute at Kent Place School. She has worked in the philosophy for children commuity for over ten years and specializes in dialogic teaching strategies, argumentation, and ethics instruction. She recieved her B.A from Mount Holyoke College and her M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University in the field of Philosophy and Education. Ariel is the co-founder of the New York City High School Ethics Bowl and an endorsed practioner of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children.


Thomas Wartenberg
Board Member
Mount Holyoke College

Thomas E. Wartenberg is Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at Mount Holyoke College. His main areas of focus are aesthetics, the philosophy of film, and philosophy for children. Among his publications are Thinking on Screen: Film as Philosophy, Big Ideas for Little Kids: Teaching Philosophy Through Children’s Literature, A Sneetch is a Sneetch and Other Philosophical Discoveries: Finding Wisdom in Children’s Literature, Existentialism: A Beginner’s Guide, and Mel Bochner: Illustrating Philosophy. His philosophy for children website, teachingchildrenphilosophy.org, was awarded the 2011 APA/PDC Prize for Excellence and Innovations in Philosophy Programs. He received the 2013 Merritt Prize for his contributions to the philosophy of education. He served as President of PLATO from 2016-18 and is Film Editor for Philosophy Now. He recently created a website for teaching philosophy through works of art: Philosophy@The Virtual Art Museum.



MEET OUR STAFF


Debi Talukdar
Executive Director
University of Washington

Kate Goldyn
Development Coordinator
University of Washington
Jana Mohr Lane, President
University of WashingtonThomas Wartenberg, Vice President
Mount Holyoke College

Roberta Israeloff, Secretary
Squire Family Foundation

Stephen Miller, Treasurer
Oakwood Friends, Marist College

Michael Burroughs
Rock Ethics Institute, Pennsylvania State University

Allison Cohen
Langley High School, Virginia

Jessica Davis
Teachers College, Columbia University

Jim Davis
BU Academy, Boston

Sara Goering
University of Washington

Steven Goldberg
Oak Park and River Forest High School, Chicago

Polly Hunter
University of Virginia

Megan Laverty
Teachers College, Columbia University

Janice Moskalik
University of Washington

Bart Schultz
University of Chicago

Wendy Turgeon
St. Joseph’s College