Co-Founder
Terry started teaching elementary school in Chicago in 1975. He moved to the Seattle area in 1983, teaching in the Everett School District for many years.
In 1988, he was in the first cohort of the Danforth Educational Leadership Program at the University of Washington, an innovative principal preparation program. During that year, he was visiting a middle school and watched a Positive Discipline-inspired class meeting in an 8th grade. He immediately sought to learn more about Positive Discipline, also delving into the works of Alfred Adler. In short order, what he learned transformed his parenting and his teaching.
In the early 90’s Terry met Dr. Jody McVittie at a church in Marysville. They quickly discovered a common interest in Adlerian psychology and Positive Discipline. They began developing and co-teaching workshops for educators and parents.
In 1998, Terry left the classroom and worked in the Everett District Office, focusing on bringing national models of school improvement to districts in the greater Seattle area. He and Jody continued to offer workshops together. In 2001, Terry moved to Seattle Schools, leading a project called Communities That Care. This offered the opportunity for he and Jody to offer workshops to Seattle Schools and beyond.
A few years later, they co-founded Sound Discipline (now BELONG Partners) as a non-profit and began developing and implementing a whole-school model to change discipline foundations and practices.
Terry left Seattle Schools in 2004. He became a facilitator for the Center for Courage & Renewal (a leadership development organization founded by Parker J. Palmer.) In 2007 he joined the staff at CCR. From 2010 to 2017 he served as Executive Director of that organization, succeeding the founders and helping to grow their work beyond educators in the US to leaders of all kinds across the globe.
Terry served as Board Chair for Sound Discipline for several years until 2017 when he stepped away from a formal role. He has continued to support, consult, and lead occasional programs for BELONG Partners since.
Terry and his wife Jane have four adult children who, with their partners, all live in Seattle. They have four grandchildren.
Terry says, “One of the things I am most proud of is launching Sound Discipline and watching it grow and evolve over the past two decades, recently becoming BELONG Partners. Nothing is more important than engaging educators, students and their parents in proven tools and techniques that build connection, courage and liberation so needed in our troubled world.”