About Ms. Tinari
Ms. Christa M. Tinari is a dynamic educational consultant specializing in violence prevention education. She brings over ten years of experience in character education and expertise in conflict management to her work in schools and communities.
Q: Why did Ms. Tinari enter this field?
A: Ms. Tinari has always been passionate about the power of education to bring compassion, justice and hope to children and their families. Raised in a family of educators, and married to a high school physics teacher, she has a deep respect for educators and the profession.
Ms. Tinari’s life trajectory was influenced deeply by several dedicated and inspirational educators she experienced throughout her schooling. After reading Comprehensive Peace Education by Betty Reardon of Columbia University, she became sure of education as her life’s work. Her experiences as: a teaching intern at Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, DC; a Conflict Mediator and 504 Case Manager at South Brunswick High School in NJ; and Program Director at an educational non-profit called The Peace Center in Langhorne, PA moved her to investigate ways to best serve the needs of educators, students and families.
Her professional Mission is to contribute to the creation of safe, caring and academically successful learning communities.
Q: Does Ms. Tinari work with students, staff, children or adults?
A: She is equally engaging and at ease working with children and students as she is working with educators, administrators and community members. With a background in social service non-profit work and crisis counseling at a large public school, she is familiar with the types of challenges facing schools and community agencies. Ms. Tinari provides solutions to common barriers to success in implementing and sustaining prevention programming. Her breadth of knowledge in educational programming translates into client-centered, practical, skill-building workshops for students, staff and community members.
Q: Who has Ms. Tinari served?
A: Ms. Tinari has provided practical, academically-relevant workshops and training for over 50 schools in urban and suburban areas of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She has served special needs students, including “at-risk” and adjudicated students from diverse communities. Christa has directly trained over 1,000 professional educators, counselors and administrators in public, private and alternative schools and universities.
Ms. Tinari has presented on Peer Mediation and Conflict Resolution Education, as well as Bullying Prevention, and Social and Emotional Learning, at several conferences including: the Center for Safe Schools Annual Conference in Harrisburg, PA; the National Conference of the Association of Conflict Resolution in Philadelphia, PA; and the Special Education Conference and the Diversity Conference of The Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22 in Doylestown, PA. Ms. Tinari also facilitated policy discussions between international delegates at the Inter-American Summit on Conflict Resolution Education and Peace Education this past March.
Ms. Tinari developed and facilitated the highly successful professional development Peaceful Schools Institute. During the summers of 2007 and 2008, this Institute, titled Safe, Caring and Successful Schools: Practical Strategies for Educators, was hosted by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and was attended by 102 Catholic school teachers from over 45 schools. For more information about this unique program, please visit the ‘Peaceful Schools Institute 2007′ page.
Q: With whom is Ms. Tinari currently working?
A. Currently, Ms. Tinari is providing consulting services, in curriculum development and training in Social and Emotional Learning, to Belmont Charter and Family Charter schools, of The Community Education Alliance of West Philadelphia. She is also providing curriculum development services and training to Chester Eastside Ministries, which has been contracted by the Chester-Upland School District to develop a Saturday School Alternative to Suspension Program.
Ms. Tinari is an adjunct professor in the College of Education at Temple University and she is a lead trainer for TU’s Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education Project, directed by Dr. Tricia S. Jones. Ms. Tinari is also currently enrolled in the Star Factor Coach Training program, directed by Dr. Janet Patti and Dr. Robin Stern, which uses emotional intelligence frameworks to develop clients’ leadership capacities.
The Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22 and The Peace Center both contract with Ms. Tinari to provide peer mediation, bullying prevention, violence prevention and conflict resolution training to students and staff in PA and NJ. For a complete list of recent clients, please visit the ‘Clients’ page.
Q: How has Ms. Tinari been active in her community?
A: Ms. Tinari has been active with community efforts to empower youth in healthy ways and to support diversity awareness and understanding. Working collaboratively with community colleges, diversity coalitions, and peace and justice organizations, she has organized Rap Sessions on Violence Prevention, ‘Stop the Hate’ vigils, Community Interfaith Dialogues and educational forums. Her commitment to communities moves beyond programs and projects: she strives to serve community needs through honest dialogue and participatory action on issues of concern, including systemic forms of violence.
Q: What is Ms. Tinari’s educational background?
A: Ms. Tinari holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in International Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, with a concentration in Education. She has completed additional graduate study in Student Assistance Counseling and Educational Leadership. She is a trained mediator and adventure-based team-building facilitator.
She has also received training in Restorative Practices, Responsive Classroom, and Rainbows (support groups for grieving children). Ms. Tinari is certified in the practice of Life Space Crisis Intervention. Ms. Tinari frequently attends professional development training and workshops so that she can integrate the latest research findings in prevention education into her practice.
Q: What is so special about Ms. Tinari’s services?
A: Ms. Tinari enjoys integrating experiential learning and content-based instruction in order to provide intellectully challenging, professionally relevant, emotionally engaging and personally enjoyable training experiences for participants. She is deeply committed to meeting the stated needs of her clients. The love of what she does, as well as her in-depth knowledge of educational topics creates an exciting and enriching learning environment for participants.
Please visit the ‘Testimonials’ page to hear what clients say about Ms. Tinari’s services.