David Keller Trevaskis, Esquire, is an attorney and former third grade teacher with a Master’s Degree in Education. He is the Pro Bono Coordinator for Legal Services for the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA), responsible for assisting local bar associations, legal services programs and other groups who offer pro bono legal services across the Commonwealth. Trevaskis is also the PBA’s coordinator for public education about the law. Trevaskis produces annual “I Signed the Constitution” and Law Day lesson plan booklets for the PBA (six years worth of these materials are available on the PBA website). He has also been a leader in the PBA statewide mock trial competition, as a problem developer and program organizer, for most of its twenty one year history. Trevaskis is part of the leadership council for PennCORD (Pennsylvania Coalition for Representative Democracy), a coalition devoted to promoting the civic mission of schools in Pennsylvania under the auspices of Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge and Pennsylvania First Lady Marjorie O. Rendell, the National Constitution Center and the PBA. Trevaskis is a member of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and American Bar Associations and served on the American Bar Association's Special Committee on Youth for Citizenship. Trevaskis is an active member of the ABA’s Dispute Resolution Committee and is an original trainer in the ABA’s Mediation Outreach Project to high school students.

Trevaskis serves as the Executive Director for Law, Education and Peace for Kids (LEAP-Kids), the Pennsylvania branch of a national network organized by the United States Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to promote law-related education and civics (LRCE). LEAP-Kids, organized in 2001, is the successor to Temple-LEAP at the Temple University Beasley School of Law in this statewide LRCE leadership role. Trevaskis, both at Temple-LEAP and LEAP-Kids, has been Pennsylvania’s LRCE director since 1993. He has created, developed, edited and produced a wealth of LRCE materials, including being the featured scholar on Cambridge Educational’s Bill of Rights Video and its 20 tape series, Amendments to the Constitution. Trevaskis maintains a LRCE website at www.leap-kids.com that reflects his work in the field.

Trevaskis is the President-Elect of the Pennsylvania Council for Social Studies and has been the organization’s recording secretary for the past six years. He was a two term Board member and he has been the Chair of the PCSS Law-Related and Civic Education Special Interest Group since 1989. Trevaskis was a training mentor and Board member for the Center for Research and Development in Law-Related Education and is an educational advisor to the National Liberty Museum. He helped draft the Pennsylvania Civics and Government Standards. Trevaskis coordinated the Pennsylvania Governor’s Institute on Civics and Government in 1999 and the 2000 and 2001 Governor’s Institute on Social Studies, and he has been the civics guru at those programs since then.

Trevaskis has taught at every level, from elementary school through law school. Through Bob Randall Associates, Inc., under the auspices of Gratz College, Trevaskis has taught more than 30 LRCE-based graduate classes, specifically designed for teachers, on mediation, We the People, character education, school law and sports law. Trevaskis has presented more than 2000 programs, ranging from short seminars to year-long courses, across Pennsylvania and around the nation on a wide range of topics including the ethics of pro bono, conflict resolution, juvenile justice issues, police-community encounters, sports liability, standards-based education, reading across the curriculum, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs prevention education, performance assessment, current cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and rules for the kindergarten classroom.

Trevaskis is the developer and original trainer for Project PEACE (Peaceful Endings through Attorneys, Children and Educators) that has brought peer mediation and conflict resolution education to nearly 500 schools in Indiana and Pennsylvania in partnership with each state's Bar Association and Attorney General. He has conducted numerous mediation showcases and has taught graduate dispute resolution at Arcadia College in his home community of Glenside, Pennsylvania. Trevaskis is the recipient of the 1996 Philadelphia Bar Association's Leon J. Obermayer Education Award, a 2000 President's Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association for teaching law-related and civic education to children from kindergarten through high school, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Young Lawyer Division’s 2002 F. Sean Peretta Service Award and a 2004 Chester County Bar Association President’s Award.

Trevaskis is married with two children and one grandson

•Resumé

The most challenging issue facing public school educators today is an age old one--how can we best educate the next generation of American citizens to be the caring, involved and responsible people our representative democracy depends on for our future. Educators are asked to be more today for our young people than ever before--everything from parents to police-- as schools take the place of other societal institutions charged with the continuation of our representative democracy. How to handle that awesome task with often limited resources and inconsistent public support is the obstacle--and the opportunity--facing every 21st century educator.

Educators must commit themselves to the task of creating an informed and involved citizenry by themselves being informed and involved. This does not mean that every teacher has to be marching in the streets against social injustice, but seeking justice in his or her classroom is not a bad place to start this process. Children today face a host of challenges that seem far greater than the challenges of past generations and the resources available to our children to face these challenges seem diminished. Educators must fill this void. They may often end up feeling like the proverbial Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke, but their story, and the story of their children, can share a positive ending.

I am an intuitive educator who loves interaction and thrives on energy in the classroom! My teaching style is constantly evolving. The poet T.S. Elliott once noted that "great poets never imitate"—his punch line being, "they steal!" I have "stolen" a little something from every teacher I ever had and from every teacher I've ever been fortunate enough to observe. I even "steal" ideas from my students in Bob Randall classes.