About Gifts of Character

Gifts of Character aims to give people the awareness, knowledge and skills to call into practice their unique gifts to achieve their goals, improve their relationships, and enhance their satisfaction at work and at home.

About the Virtues Project

The mission of The Virtues Project is to provide empowering strategies that inspire the practice of virtues in everyday life through programs of excellence and simplicity which support people of all ages to cultivate their virtues – the gifts of character.

About Dara Feldman

Dara Feldman is the founder and Chief Enthusiast Officer of Gifts of Character, where she inspires individuals to live more authentic, joyful lives, helps families to raise children of compassion and integrity, shows educators how to create safe, caring and high performing learning communities, and guides leaders to inspire excellence and ethics in the workplace.

She is also Director of Education Initiatives and a Master Facilitator for The Virtues Project International, an award-winning, grassroots program that was honored by The United Nations as a model global program for families of all cultures and endorsed by The Dalia Lama.

Prior to founding Gifts of Character, Dara was a classroom teacher and instructional technology specialist in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland for 16 years. She was Director of Curriculum Development for PowerUP, a non-profit organization whose mission is to help bridge the Digital Divide, and a consultant with the U.S. Department of Education's Web-based Education Commission.

In June of 2000, Dara received the Computerworld Smithsonian Award in Education and Academia for her Early Childhood Technology Literacy Project. She is president of the Maryland Center for Character Education, a training consultant for the Character Education Partnership, an Apple Distinguished Educator, and a Master Teacher for the National Teacher Training Institute.

A National Board Certified Teacher, Dara is Disney’s 2005 Outstanding Elementary School Teacher of the Year.