Why Hope Is Having a Moment:
How Spirituality Is Reshaping How We Lead
Program Description:
Hope isn't wishful thinking, it's a trainable skill, and new research shows it may be the single strongest predictor of effective leadership.
Whether you lead a classroom, a clinical practice, a team, or an entire organization, this session offers a starting point to practice and strengthen hope as a leadership skill.
In this free one-hour Zoom session, Dr. Dan Tomasulo, Academic Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University, will explore why hope, gratitude, and a sense of the sacred are converging in leadership research right now, and the practical steps leaders can take to support the performance and well-being of their team.
This webinar offers a preview of Dan’s two certificate programs withTC Academy: the Hope Leadership Program and his upcoming Higher Purpose Program (details forthcoming).
Both programs blend positive psychology with psychodrama to teach counselors, educators, coaches, and organizational leaders how to build hope and resilience in themselves and the people they lead.
TC Academy's free speaker series gives you access to TC faculty’s expertise—across education, psychology, health, and leadership—and a preview of the programs offered through TC Academy.
Dates & Registration
Date: September 14, 2026
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST
Location: Online
Price: Free
For more information, questions or to register: Email tcacademy@tc.columbia.edu
Speaker
Dr. Dan Tomasulo
Academic Director— Spirituality Mind Body Institute Coordinator / Core Faculty SMB MA program
Dan Tomasulo, Ph.D., TEP, MFA, MAPP is a licensed psychologist, speaker, author of several books on positive psychology and mental health, and the Academic Director and core faculty at the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, Teachers College, Columbia University. He speaks about alleviating depression with positive psychology and hope worldwide and is a board-certified Teacher, Educator, and Practitioner of Psychodrama, Sociometry, and Group Psychotherapy.
Dr. Tomasulo holds a PhD in psychology, an MFA in writing, and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Review Editor for Frontiers in Psychology special section, Positive Psychology, and the Journal of Positive Psychology.
What You’ll Learn
- Why hope functions as a trainable skill rather than a fixed trait, and how it emerges as one of the strongest predictors of resilient, effective leadership in current research.
- How hope, gratitude, and a sense of the sacred are converging in leadership science right now, and why this particular combination is gaining traction with organizations.
- What this convergence means in practice for how organizations develop and support their people, beyond traditional leadership training models.
- Concrete first steps leaders can apply "starting Monday morning" to begin cultivating hope as a deliberate practice within their own teams.