91¿ì²¥

Biography

Jeffrey S. Kress is the Provost of 91¿ì²¥ and the Dr. Bernard Heller Professor of Jewish Education. Dr. Kress’s interests include social, emotional, and spiritual development and education. He has written about experiential Jewish education, particularly as it takes place in formal settings. He has also conducted research and professional development on inclusion of learners with disabilities in camp settings. His bookDevelopment, Learning, and Community: Educating for Identity in Pluralistic Jewish High Schools(Academic Studies Press, 2012) won a National Jewish Book Award. His latest book isNurturing Students’ Character: Everyday Teaching Activities for Social and Emotional Learning (Routledge Press, 2020), written with Dr. Maurice Elias. He has also published numerous journal articles and book chapters and regularly presents at academic and professional-development conferences. Dr. Kress has served as the chair of the Network for Research in Jewish Education and was a Dr. Jonathan Woocher Fellow of Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.

Prior to coming to 91¿ì²¥, Dr. Kress worked as a program-development specialist and school-based trainer for the Social Decision Making/Social Problem Solving program of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s Community Mental Health Center. He completed an internship in clinical/community psychology there after receiving his doctorate in clinical psychology from Rutgers University.

BA, University of Pennsylvania; MS and PhD, Rutgers University

Publications

• . Editor. New York: URJ Press, 2013.
• . Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2012. 
• . Coeditor with Mitchell Cohen. New York: National Ramah Commission, 2010.
• . With Bernard Novick and Maurice J. Elias. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2002.

Research

Dr. Kress’s research focuses are in religious and spiritual development; education for Jewish identity and values; experiential Jewish education; implementation and sustainability of educational innovations; social and emotional learning and character education; and program evaluation.