Dr. Joel Black earned his Ph.D. from Pacific Western University in Experiential Education. He has degrees in recreation, education, psychology and gifted education. He has taught classes, seminars and workshops to students, professionals and the merely curious in all fifty states and 11 foreign countries, has held teaching certificates in four states, and is highly qualified (under the new Federal guidelines) in seven areas, including all five “solid” areas. He has taught students in every conceivable setting, has designed three new educational models, has started up four successful programs, has taught students from ages five to 95, and has worked in all five arenas of education, Public, Private, Home, Rehabilitative and Business. He owns Cascade Independent High School, in Washington State. He is extensively traveled, well-read, and the author of the premier text in Experiential Education. He is the father of nine children, and has a home and yard so well landscaped that it that stops traffic. A Renaissance Man, he also dabbles in music, philanthropy, philosophy and finding patterns in the clouds, with his four-year-old son.

Cascade Independent High School (CIH) was originally founded to address the needs of students who had been outside of the system and needed credits, or who had failed and needed special help. Service to at-risk students, the forgotten and the neglected, have always been a significant portion of its clientele. Independent students, iconoclasts, and home-schoolers seeking a diploma have constituted the balance. CIH can work with students in any state, and can grant credit in any subject, so long as the work and learning is, or can be, well-documented. CIH works with independent students who create their own goals, curriculum, evaluation, and who work at their own pace using self-selected materials. It is quite possibly the most empowering high school in America.

ELD began as a printer’s error. (Funny how the greatest things often occur unintentionally: vulcanization, sticky notes, carbide steel.) The letters, which introduce three critical aspects of any experiential design, appeared at the top of an announcement slated for dissemination to businesses in 1985. At that time Dr. Black had just co-authored a seminal monograph on leadership with J.T. O’Leary of Purdue, and was working with large companies (including Southland and GM) and schools (including the Washington State Governor’s School, and Tennessee’s Gifted Consortium) on “perceived risk,” high-intensity, outdoor, leadership training programs. We liked the new name. It describes our mission: Education, Leadership and Interpersonal Dynamics.

Since 1985, E.L.D. has run over 150 outdoor programs to develop youth and businesses, and has helped over 30,000 people achieve better grades, better jobs, better marriages, and goals they had previously given up on. Additionally Dr. Black has been involved with Scouting, 4-H Challenge, and other youth agencies, and a variety of public and private schools, to build programs to serve gifted students, at-risk students and home-schooled or independent students. Along the way he has been recognized in every issue of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers except two, probably the only teacher in history to be nominated so often.

Currently ELD owns CIH—through which it helps many students each year earn a high school diploma who otherwise might never earn one; takes students on credit-granting educational tours (jointly with the world’s largest travel company); runs wilderness programs; publishes books, and ghost-writes for others; offers specialty items designed by former students; offers landscaping ideas (in conjunction with former students); and is in the design stages of a year-long, international “High School Junior Year.”