About Dr Shelby Clark

Principal Investigator, The Good Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Dr. Shelby Clark is Principal Investigator at The Good Project at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses particularly on intellectual and civic character—qualities such as curiosity, social responsibility, and the capacity to engage with ethical complexity—and how schools can support these traits through intentional design. Dr. Clark is co-author of numerous peer-reviewed studies on the development of critical consciousness among adolescents of color, including how awareness of systemic inequality relates to academic motivation and agency. She also co-led the design and evaluation of The Good Project Lesson Plans, a widely used curriculum that helps students reflect on what it means to be a good person, worker, and citizen. Her work includes a global study on the long-term impact of education at the United World Colleges and current research on intellectual risk-taking—students’ willingness to take academic and ethical risks in the pursuit of meaningful learning. Across all of her work, she aims to create tools, insights, and learning environments that honor the voices of students and empower them to contribute to a more just and purposeful world.

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About Ms Lynn Barendsen

Senior Project Director, The Good Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Lynn Barendsen is Senior Project Director of The Good Project at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she has helped lead the project’s research and dissemination efforts since its inception. With deep expertise in project design, funder collaboration, and cross-sector partnership, she has overseen national and international initiatives focused on ethics, purpose, and socially responsible work. Barendsen co-developed The Good Project Lesson Plans, a widely implemented curriculum that equips students to reflect on what it means to pursue meaningful and ethical work. She plays a central role in translating research into accessible tools and resources, and her leadership has been instrumental in advancing values-driven education and broadening the impact of the Good Project’s work in schools, communities, and youth-serving organizations.

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Founded by psychologists William Damon, Howard Gardner, and the late Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1996, The Good Project has over two decades of experience conducting qualitative research and developing practical materials, with an emphasis on topics such as the meaning of good work, effective collaboration, digital citizenship, and civic participation. Presently, through research-based concepts, frameworks, and resources, The Good Project strives to equip individuals to reflect upon the ethical dilemmas that arise in everyday life by providing them with the tools to make thoughtful decisions. We are a research initiative of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.