Purple America is a national initiative of Values-in-Action Foundation to re-focus the American conversation to a civil, productive and respectful dialogue around our American shared values.
Values-in-Action Foundation empowers students and adults to build communities of kindness, caring and respect through programs that teach, promote, and provide skills and tools to enable individuals to make positive values-based decisions every day. To learn more about Project Love, our school-based, character-development initiative of Values-in-Action Foundation, visit www.viafdn.org


Thorpe, vice president and director of education for WNET, oversees educational activities that enhance and extend the productions and broadcasts of WNET’s subsidiaries, THIRTEEN and WLIW21. At WNET and EBC, Thorpe has been responsible for work related to a Ready to Teach grant from the U.S. Department of Education; online resources for New York State schools; outreach initiatives connected to all of the station’s national productions; and the annual Celebration of Teaching and Learning, a two-day professional development conference serving more than 8,000 teachers and administrators each year. Throughout his career, he has focused on professional development of teachers. A graduate of Harvard College, Thorpe earned his Ed.M. and Ed. D. in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the author of numerous articles and commentaries on education, technology, and philanthropy, and is the editor of The First Year as Principal (Heinemann, 1995).
Ronald Thorpe
Washington, DC
