Dr. Jim Kestner
Department Chair
Office: 2418 - Buzzard Hall
Phone: 217-581-2620
Email: jlkestner@eiu.edu
Jim Kestner, Ph.D., is the chair of the Department of Student Teaching and Clinical Experiences, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Secondary Education and Foundations. He is also the director of Web-Based and Alternative Teacher Certification Programs, a program he led from its initial inception on campus in 2001. Starting his career as a high school English teacher and track and cross country coach, Jim has built a national reputation as a speaker specializing in youth character development and teaches a Web-based graduate course called Building Character in Youth at EIU.
Jim’s clients have included:
- The National Education Association
- Horace Mann Educators Corporation
- Stedman Graham
- Oprah Winfrey
- USA Volleyball
- YMCA of the USA
- The Illinois State Board of Education
- The Abraham Lincoln Institute for Literacy in America
- Athletic programs at Stanford University and the University of Southern California
- Numerous other universities, community colleges, and public and private school districts.
Jim is a past member of the Education Advisory Council and Coaching Accreditation Program Curriculum Committee for USA Volleyball. He has been married for 19 years and has three children, including a son who is a high school senior, a son who is a freshman, and a daughter who is in seventh grade. Jim’s hobbies include running, bicycling, fishing, basketball, and writing articles, short stories, and poetry. He is a volunteer soccer, basketball, and cross country coach and serves on the Villa Grove Schools Board of Education as well as the partner board of I Sing the Body Electric, a regional youth prevention organization headquartered in Mattoon, Illinois.
