About CMI
Character Mentoring Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational institution headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama. We exist because schools, funders, and research institutions have not taken seriously enough what it actually requires to produce a whole, capable human being.
What We Are
CMI is not a tutoring center, not a social-emotional learning provider, and not a program vendor. We are a research and educational institution. We operate a proprietary formation curriculum and conduct ongoing research, with academic partnership and IRB coverage in place for our active study, and we publish our intellectual architecture in the public record.
Our flagship program, Cultivated Brilliance, is a five-track, multi-year formation curriculum for young people ages 5–18, built on the Six Domains of Human Coherence. The framework was developed through AracenCo Lab and licensed to CMI as the operating institution. We also offer academic tutoring and educational services as part of that formation work.
The family is the primary unit of formation in our model. Parent formation runs parallel to student formation. This is a distinct, rigorous approach to developing the full human being across biological, cognitive, psychological, relational, financial, and cosmological dimensions, not a supplement to schooling.
Institutional Architecture
IP Holder
AracenCo
Intellectual Property · Research Publication
AracenCo is the IP holding company that owns the Six Domains of Human Coherence framework, the Cultivated Brilliance curriculum architecture, and all associated proprietary methodology. AracenCo Lab is the academic presence on ResearchGate, where working papers are published under co-authorship with Dr. Edward Brown and Tai Aracen.
Operating Institution
Character Mentoring Institute
501(c)(3) · Educational Operator · Research Institution
CMI is the operating 501(c)(3) institution. It holds the license to operate Cultivated Brilliance, employs the staff who deliver programming and conduct research, and manages CMI's institutional and coalition relationships.
Flagship Program
Cultivated Brilliance
Formation Curriculum · Educational Services · Licensed Application
Cultivated Brilliance is the licensed application of the Six Domains framework, a five-track, multi-year curriculum delivered by CMI to students ages 5–18. It includes academic instruction and tutoring, Individual Coherence Plans, family formation programming, and the Living Library practitioner archive that feeds the curriculum with real-world depth.
Academic Partnership
Research Anchor
Academic Partnership · IRB Coverage · Principal Investigator
CMI's research activity is grounded in a formal academic partnership that provides IRB coverage for the Coherence Condition study currently underway. Dr. Edward Brown, CMI Chairman, holds his Ed.D. and serves as Principal Investigator for the study.
Founding Leadership
Co-Founder · Chairman · Principal Investigator
Ed.D. · Alabama State University
Dr. Edward Brown is the Chairman of CMI's Board of Directors and the Principal Investigator for CMI's ongoing Coherence Condition research study. His doctoral training grounds CMI's research in rigorous academic methodology and provides the institutional foundation for CMI's IRB-covered study design.
As co-founder of CMI, Dr. Brown is the lead architect of the organization's approach to character formation as an empirically grounded practice and a co-author of WP01, "Beyond Good Character," the foundational working paper establishing the Six Domains framework in the public research record.
Co-Founder · Executive Director · Legal Advisor
JD · Wilson Sonsini · Perkins Coie
Tai Aracen is the Executive Director of CMI and the founder of AracenCo, the IP holding entity that owns the Six Domains of Human Coherence framework and the Cultivated Brilliance curriculum architecture. Her legal background in corporate and IP law, developed at Wilson Sonsini, Perkins Coie, and through Chevron's foreign IP portfolio, informs CMI's precise approach to institutional design and intellectual property protection.
She is the originating author of the Post-Global Capital doctrine and the Coherence Economy framework, and a co-author of WP01. Her work building across West and East Africa before founding CMI shapes the global perspective embedded in Cultivated Brilliance's curriculum design.
Governance
CMI's Board of Directors provides fiduciary oversight, strategic guidance, and institutional accountability. The board brings expertise across education, research, legal, and community development.
Chairman
Treasurer
Secretary
Research & Evaluation
Academic / Community Voice
Legal / Compliance
Education / Community Voice
Staff & Advisory
Advisory Council members carry no fiduciary duty and no voting authority. They are engaged for their expertise as needed. Staff members are financially compensated for their participation in CMI's operations.
Tai Aracen
Executive Director · Legal Advisor
Shevon Maxwell
Grant & Partnership Director
Kim Smith
Staff
Cedric Varner
Advisory
Paul Gourdine
Advisory
Charles Jackson
Advisory