Lynne Lang
Lynne is the founder and executive director of Restoration Matters, a nonprofit organization in St. Louis, Missouri. She has worked in public health since 1994, overseeing community coalitions and developing school health and safety curriculum. In 2009, she initiated Virtue-Based Restorative Discipline (VBRD), a model for restorative practices rooted in habits for human excellence – the virtues. From 2011-2018, she worked for the Archdiocese of St. Louis and developed a following in Catholic schools and parishes nationwide. She has researched the impact of virtue and social-emotional learning in schools implementing restorative practices, and her findings support the belief that cultivating the practice of virtue – both in public and faith-based schools – is foundational to healthy decision-making for adults and students.
She holds an M.S. in Health Management and in Restorative Practices from the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) Graduate School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She has been a licensed instructor since 2018 and is passionate about developing restorative leaders within school, business, and community organizations. Her background in dispute resolution, conflict transformation, and restorative practices is foundational to her thought leadership in various professional development settings.
Bringing a Restorative Compassion project into violent neighborhoods is one such initiative. This skill-based training in listening and storytelling enables residents and community leaders to process how they are individually affected by traumatic events that impact the entire community as a pathway to healing, hope, and restoration. This current work is the foundation for her doctoral work in international mediation and conflict resolution.