His son dodging an armadillo in S. Texas

Name: Michael Justin Karcher

Age: Over 40, not yet 50

Hometown: San Antonio

Colleges: Austin College, UT, and Harvard

Known for: The Baloo & Bagheera talk on TEAM framework; the Hemingway; CAMP; and the pair counseling manual

Favorite Vacation: Port Aransas

Favorite Book: All God’s Children

Favorite Movie: The Jungle Book

Hobby: Photography (which of the two above is most excited about my interest in photography?)

Born in San Antonio, Michael grew up in a richly divided family. His mother and second father, Jim, were Montessori teachers. His father and second mother, Phyllis, worked together in advertising for 20 years until returning to their shared passion, ranching. Sandwiched between three extraordinarily creative brothers, Michael has been fortunate to have models of creativity, passion, and self-direction as well as instruction and mentoring in the use of media. Michael also benefitted from mentor rich environments at key points in his life, from his first mentors, Father Chuck and (peer mentor) Chris Abbott as a youth, and Michael Nakkula and Hardin Coleman as an adult.

Workwise:

Michael J. Karcher, Ed.D., Ph.D., Professor of Education and Human Development, is the School Counseling Training Program Coordinator at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

    Dr. Karcher holds doctorates in Human Development (Harvard) & Counseling Psychology (UT).  He studies school-based mentoring (Study of Mentoring in the Learning Environment, www.utsasmile.org), cross-age peer mentoring (see CAMP site for information), adolescent connectedness, and pair counseling.

    He co-edited both the Handbook of Youth Mentoring (with David DuBois, 2005, 2013) and a special issue on structure in mentoring (with Michael Nakkula, 2010), and has collaboratively studied school-based mentoring with Carla Herrera for several years.

Michael and his assistant, and son, setting up the tripod for a family photo