OUR Founders
Linda Kavelin-Popov (CO-FOUNDER)
Bestselling author, Linda Kavelin-Popov is an international speaker on personal and global transformation. She is co-founder with her husband Dr. Dan Popov and brother, John Kavelin of The Virtues Project, a global initiative that inspires the practice of virtues in everyday life. The Project, founded in 1991, is sparking a global revolution of kindness, justice, and integrity in more than 120 countries and was honored by the United Nations as a “model global program for families of all cultures.” Linda is an internationally acclaimed advocate for positive change and was named “a cultural creative” by Time Magazine. Her clients include corporate CEOs in the United States and Korea, and leaders and educators across North America, Australia, Europe, Asia, and Pacific Island communities. She has spoken at conferences such as The Dalai Lama’s “Seeds of Compassion,” addressing audiences of up to 80,000 people. The Virtues Project has inspired and mobilized thousands to commit acts of service and generosity, to heal family abuse and to transform their communities from violence to virtues.
Linda served on the Boys & Girls Clubs of America National Think Tank on character and the Advisory Editorial Board for the Spirituality and Ethics segment on CTV National News in Canada. She was a charter member of the advisory board of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia. In 2001 she received a Women of Distinction Award from the YW/YMCA. As a psychotherapist, she designed teen suicide and violence prevention programs used in U.S. cities. She has been an organizational development consultant to diverse clients such as Arthur Young International, Hallmark Cards, Hyatt Hotels, General Motors, and the Inspector General for U.S. Health and Human Services. She was the first Spiritual Care Director of Hospice Victoria, later serving as president of a hospice board as well as chaplain of the Lana’i Hospice in Hawaii. She has offered virtues-based healing retreats and workshops for indigenous communities from Inuit in the Arctic Circle to villages in Fiji, New Zealand maraes, Aboriginal communities in Australia, and many First Nations communities across Canada. She facilitated personal empowerment retreats throughout the world.
Her books include: The Family Virtues Guide, translated into more than a dozen languages, The Virtues Project Educator’s Guide, Sacred Moments: Meditations on the Virtues; A Pace of Grace: The Virtues of a Sustainable Life; Graceful Endings: Navigating the Journey of Loss and Grief; a novel: The Scent of Sage; and Dreaming at the Crossroads of Change. She has been a feature writer and columnist on virtues for several publications, including Cook Islands News and Lana’i Today in Hawaii. Her blog is found on her author website: www.lindakavelinpopov.com Linda has appeared on Oprah and many other television shows, and had a national television series in Canada: “Virtues: a Family Affair.” She has lived in the U.S., Canada, the Cook Islands and Hawaii. She has two sons in Manila and Melbourne and seven grandchildren.
Dan Popov, Ph.D. (CO-FOUNDER)
Dr. Dan Popov is a clinical pediatric psychologist and a scholar of the world’s sacred traditions. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and received his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado. He was a senior scientist consulting to NASA and taught at several universities. He served as Chief of Letterman Army Medical Centre and developed innovative Artificial Intelligence tools to assess organizational and management effectiveness. His Paradigm Assessment Program was used with clients such as Arthur Young International, the U.S. Department of Human Services, and several city governments across the U.S.
He had an active practice specializing child and family psychology.
Dan is an inspiring international speaker who has traveled the world with his wife, Linda, bringing virtues to life in villages from Fiji to the Arctic, corporate CEOs in South Korea, corporations, many faith communities and schools in America, Europe, Asia and the South Pacific as well as First Nations communities across Canada.
John H. Kavelin 1944-2009 (CO-FOUNDER)
John was co-founder and a director of The Virtues Project and designer of The Family Virtues Guide.
He was the Director of Design & Production at Tokyo Disneyland. His "Imagineering" projects include "ASIA" at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" at Disneyland USA.
He had an illustrious career as a designer for stage, television, opera, and movies. He spent his last years serving The Virtues Project.
One of his last acts was to choose the image for the home page of the virtues website.