Patricia (Tish) Jennings, M.Ed., Ph.D. is the Director of the Initiative on Contemplation and Education at the Garrison Institute and Research Assistant Professor in Human Development and Family Studies and the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University. Dr. Jennings received her doctorate in human development from the University of California, Davis and completed postdoctoral training at the Health Psychology Program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She leads the CARE faculty team in the development of Garrison Institute’s Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) and she is conducting research to examine how CARE may improve teacher-student relationships, increased student pro-social behavior, a more positive classroom atmosphere and improved student academic performance. She is the Principal Investigator on a federally funded study to complete the development and preliminary evaluation of CARE. In addition to psychological research, Dr. Jennings has over 22 years of research and teaching experience in the field of education. After receiving a master’s degree in education, she founded and directed an experimental school where she developed and field-tested curriculum for children from infancy through 5th grade, applying a variety of contemplative approaches that come from alternative educational methodologies such as Montessori and Waldorf in her work. She later served as Director of Intern Teachers at St. Mary’s College Graduate School of Education in Moraga, California, where she taught education courses, supervised student research, developed teacher training curriculum, and supervised student teacher training.

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