Maureen Costello

Maureen Costello brings nearly 40 years of education and publishing experience to her roles as director of Teaching Tolerance. Since joining Teaching Tolerance in 2010, she has grown the program significantly, adding new initiatives such as: the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching; the Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards; the Teaching the Movement project; the Perspectives text bank and custom Learning Plan Builder; and the Educator Grants Program supporting anti-bias programming in classrooms, schools and districts.

Under Costello’s leadership, Teaching Tolerance magazine went from two to three issues a year and has garnered dozens of awards, including the AAP’s Golden Lamp Award. She wrote two groundbreaking reports on the impact of the 2016 campaign and election on American schools and helped name the phenomenon “The Trump Effect.” She also held a lead role in the production of student friendly documentaries Bullied and Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot.

Before joining the Southern Poverty Law Center, Costello worked for Scholastic, Inc. and directed the Newsweek Education Program. She began her career as a history and economics teacher at Notre Dame Academy High School in Staten Island. Throughout her career, Costello has been committed to fostering the ideals of democracy and citizenship in young people. She is a graduate of the New School University and the New York University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.