Alexis Harris is the Compassionate Schools Project (CSP) Director and affiliate in the UVA Youth-Nex Center to Promote Effective Youth Development in the School of Education and Human Development. 

She has been involved in the implementation and evaluation of multiple intervention strategies to promote social emotional competence and wellbeing and to prevent the negative consequences of stress, including school-based universal social-emotional learning interventions, contemplative/mindfulness-based approaches, and professional development for educators. She received her Ph.D. in 2014 from the Pennsylvania State University, where she developed a contemplative wellness-promotion intervention for educators, the CALM (Community Approach to Learning Mindfully) for Educators program. 

Alexis co-authored Flourish, the CSP curriculum for elementary schools and its accompanying teacher resources, practice guides, and student workbooks. Alexis is located in Louisville, KY, where she teaches Flourish and directs the CSP partnership with Jefferson County Public Schools. She leads training and implementation support for Flourish teachers and schools, professional development for educators’ SEL capacities and wellbeing, and an annual retreat for teachers in Jefferson County to support educator flourishing.