Maureen
Costello


Maureen Costello, retired director of Teaching Tolerance, has been a teacher and educational leader for over 40 years. After joining TT in 2010, she grew the program significantly, adding a number of new initiatives: the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching; the Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards; the Teaching the Movement project; Teaching Hard History: American Slavery; in-person professional development activities; 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 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 she helped name the phenomenon “The Trump Effect.” She also held a lead role in the production of the 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. In retirement, she continues to write and speak on education issues. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama. 

Articles by Maureen

A Message From Our Director

At the end of July, a group of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School came through Montgomery on a regional March for Our Lives tour. Before they left Florida, they had visited every congressional district to

AP World History Is Worth Saving

Teachers are pushing back against proposed changes they say would reframe AP World History as Eurocentric. Teaching Tolerance stands with them.

A Message From Our Director

TT Director Maureen Costello reflects on her appreciation for teachers who made the most of a tough school year.

Making King Real for Students Today

On the anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, we encourage teachers to break through the simplistic King narrative and share his righteous anger at poverty and militarism.

We Rest Our Case: American Slavery Is Widely Mistaught

After hearing from skeptics about our Teaching Hard History report findings, TT Director Maureen Costello came across striking new evidence that the project is necessary.