The Story of TEI
Five decades of research, scholarship, and education in the service of a healthier, more human world.
12 Principles of Transformative EI
These twelve principles form the foundation of Transformative EI — a research-backed model for emotional intelligence as a learnable, daily-practice discipline.
Integrative
A complete, integrated system of skills and behaviors.
Emotional intelligence is an integrated set of skills and behaviors to learn and develop. The skills span four domains — personal, emotional, relational, and life (PERL) — and they reinforce one another as a connected system, not isolated traits.
Skills Based
Skills you can learn, strengthen, and enhance.
Each of us can work to learn, strengthen, and enhance emotional skills. EI is not a fixed trait, type, or temperament — it is a discipline built through deliberate study and practice, anchored in research that began with Nelson and Low's original 1,200-item skills pool.
Experiential
The experiential mind is the lead system for change.
The experiential system is the lead system for learning, positive change, and personal growth. Drawing on Epstein's cognitive-experiential self-theory, TEI recognizes that lived experience — not theory alone — is where emotional skills actually develop.
Reflective Thinking
Reflection drives a different kind of learning.
Emotional intelligence is different from cognitive or academic learning — it requires reflective thinking, the ability to pause, examine your reactions, and choose your response. The five-step Emotional Learning System (ELS) operationalizes this process.
Breaks Reactivity
A critical 21st-century skill.
Reflective thinking helps us break habits of emotional reactivity — a requisite skill for the 21st century. Creating space between trigger and response is the gap where wisdom and leadership live.
Positive Focus
A foundation for excellence.
Emotional intelligence provides a foundation for achieving excellence in career, life, and leadership. TEI is a positive philosophy — research-derived, person-centered, skills-based, relationship-focused — that shifts growth from deficit-fixing to strength-building.
Positive Assessment
The first step in the Emotional Learning System.
Positive assessment is the first step for achievement, leadership, and personal growth — Step A in the five-step ELS. Honest, compassionate self-assessment without shame creates the conditions for real change and intelligent self-direction.
Behaviorally Anchored
Skills become wise, intentional behaviors.
EI skills, behaviors, and attitudes lead to intentional, wise behaviors and outcomes. TEI is not just feelings or intentions — it produces observable behaviors anchored in the PERL skill set, applied in real situations.
Life Management
Higher-order thinking as daily health.
Behavioral reflections of higher-order thinking lead to positive emotional learning and daily health. Drive strength, time management, and commitment ethic — the life-management PERL skills — translate emotional intelligence into sustained well-being.
Social Brain
Interdependence over independence.
TEI acknowledges the brain as a social organ — interdependence is a more important variable than independence. This concept aligns with current research on servant leadership and transformational leadership, where relational capacity is central.
Personal Science
Self-defined, self-directed excellence.
Excellence in TEI is self-defined and self-directed. People — young and old — need a healthy and positive way to self-direct, and TEI provides the framework for intelligent self-direction at any age and any stage of life.
Daily Modeling
Living it, every day.
TEI is daily modeling. Personally developing and modeling emotional intelligence every day is the overarching goal — not theory, not performance, but practice. Step E of the ELS: Self-Improvement, Apply and Model.
How Transformative EI Becomes Daily Practice
Five steps that turn emotional reactivity into reflection, wise action, and growth. The system is iterative — each cycle deepens self-knowledge and refines behavior.
Self-Assessment
ExploreDevelop the habit of pausing before you act. Inquire, discover, and question your immediate experience — even when strong emotions like anger, fear, or sadness dominate.
Self-Awareness
IdentifyIdentify your experience as either a thought or a feeling. Accurate self-awareness is the learned ability to correctly recognize and label the emotion you are experiencing.
Self-Knowledge
UnderstandInsight that allows you to make wise choices about how to behave. Sometimes Step C is logical and sequential. At other times, a quick insight reveals new, more creative options.
Self-Development
LearnLearn and practice new behaviors. Positive self-development requires engaging in behavior that pleases you, builds self-esteem, and increases self-appreciation. New behaviors take practice to become intentional habits.
Self-Improvement
Apply and ModelApply and model emotionally intelligent behavior to achieve personal, career, and academic goals. This is not an arrival state — it is the ongoing process of perfecting yourself toward intelligent self-direction.
Reflection, not reaction.
The TEI mantraThree Questions That Started It All
In 1977, two psychologists and lifelong friends — Darwin Nelson and Gary Low — set out to answer three questions that would shape the next five decades of their work, and the foundation of Transformative Emotional Intelligence.
From these three questions came a body of work that has shaped how thousands of people learn, lead, and live with emotional intelligence as a daily practice.
The People Carrying the Work
From the original researchers to the foundation's current leadership — meet the people honoring and extending the legacy of Transformative Emotional Intelligence.
Dr. Rick Hammett
Late in 2004, after completing 28 years of distinguished service in the U.S. Navy, Lieutenant Commander Rick Hammett began a new chapter by enrolling in the doctoral program in Educational Leadership at Texas A&M University–Kingsville. In 2007, following the completion of his doctoral research in emotional intelligence, he co-founded Emotional Intelligence Learning Systems (EILS), Inc. alongside his mentors and eventual business partners, Drs. Darwin Nelson and Gary Low. Soon thereafter, the Emotional Intelligence Training and Research Institute (EITRI) was established as a year-round forum extending the collaborative learning of the annual EI conferences. After the heartbreaking loss of Dr. Nelson in 2017, Rick founded the Transformative Emotional Intelligence Foundation, a 501(c)(3), to honor, preserve, and carry forward the 50-year research legacy of Drs. Nelson and Low. As an advisory board member, he continues to champion their shared vision of research-derived, person-centered, skills-based, and relationship-focused learning and development
Dr. Gary R. Low
Gary Low, Ph.D., is co-creator and developer of Transformative Emotional Intelligence (TEI) Learning & Development with Dr. Darwin Nelson. The genesis of TEI traces back to original, extensive research that began in 1977. Lifelong best friends since first grade, Nelson and Low began their professional work in separate universities, became licensed psychologists early in their careers, and worked together for 50+ years. Their focused research resulted in positive assessments and skills-based, person-centered learning systems used in schools, colleges, universities, and organizations on local, regional, national, and global levels. Gary is Professor Emeritus of Education at Texas A&M University–Kingsville; Patron and Life Member of the Forum for EI Learning in India; Principal of EI Learning Systems, Inc.; and Founding Faculty of EITRI. He co-founded the annual Institute for Emotional Intelligence in 2004, along with the EI Leadership Advisory Working (EI LAW) Group and the annual Personal Excellence Awards. He developed, taught, and supervised EI courses for first-generation, graduate, and doctoral students, and served as professor, department chair, and dean.
Dr. Dave Rude, CPTD, CALC
Dr. Dave Rude is the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) at Longenecker & Associates: A Geosyntec Company. He has served as a CLO for 17 years, including for the Department of Defense's civilian workforce of 850,000 employees, the Department of Energy / National Nuclear Security Administration, and a nonprofit research institute. Other highlights of his 40-year career include senior-level positions in talent management, consulting, financial management, and international relations. His research passions are focused on building healthy organizations. Dave serves as partner faculty at various universities and is President of the Transformative Emotional Intelligence Foundation Board. He earned his Ed.D. in Human and Organizational Learning from The George Washington University, an MPA from American University, and a BS from George Washington University. He is a Certified Professional in Talent Development and a Certified Action Learning Coach.
Dr. Kaye Nelson
Kaye Nelson earned her Ed.D. at East Texas State University–Commerce (now Texas A&M University–Commerce) around the time her husband, Darwin Nelson, and Gary Low researched and developed their first instrument, The Personal Skills Map. With their support and encouragement, she researched the level of personal skills in distressed and nondistressed marriages for her doctoral dissertation, as her academic emphasis was on marriage and family therapy. Later, as a Professor in the Counseling and Educational Psychology Department at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, she supervised doctoral students researching and presenting on personal skills and emotional intelligence. Throughout her career, she continued to research, publish, and present on emotional intelligence. Kaye serves as Secretary of the Transformative Emotional Intelligence Foundation Board, which funds scholarships and grants supporting the practice and research of transformative emotional intelligence.
Dr. Julie Chancler
Dr. Julie Chancler is an educational leader, former school administrator, Army veteran, business owner, and collegiate athlete with more than 20 years of experience supporting student success, leadership development, and performance-based learning environments. She holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Texas A&M University–Kingsville and has served across Texas public schools as principal, department chair, coach, and instructor. She is the owner of Mustang Sally Driving School, where she combines education, safety instruction, and positive behavior support to help young adults develop responsible habits and life skills. Her professional interests include emotional intelligence, Adlerian psychology, applied behavior analysis, and athlete development. She has attended and presented at EITRI conferences since 2005 and has served on the TEI Foundation board since its inception. She is a recipient of the Personal Excellence Award, presented at the annual Institute for Emotional Intelligence in recognition of her contributions to research, leadership, and service. Certified in Transformative Emotional Intelligence, she has conducted assessments, training, and research for individuals, educators, organizations, and athletic teams since 2006, and is the author of Tips for Behavior Management and Emotional Control for Youth.
Grace Espindola, MSW, BBA, C-TEI
Grace Espindola grew up working in California orchards. Today she coaches executives, shapes public policy, and leads one of the region's most versatile consulting firms. As CEO and Founder of Espindola Management Group, she has spent more than 35 years helping organizations lead with clarity and communities thrive with intention. Her work spans education, healthcare, workforce development, public policy, and Latino strategic engagement, and she has secured over $23 million in grants and contracts. Certified in Transformative Emotional Intelligence through TEIF, she integrates heart-centered awareness into everything from executive coaching to community-scale systems change. She made history as the first Mexican-American immigrant elected to the Yuba City Council and the first Latina to serve as State President of the California Association of Supervisors of Child Welfare & Attendance. She has served on 26 boards and organizations at the local, national, and international level. Grace holds a Master of Social Work from USC's Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, with a focus on Social Change and Innovation, and was named a Woman of the Year by Congressman Garamendi.
Two Friends, One Question
In 1977, two boys who met in first grade — by then both Texas-licensed psychologists — asked a research question that would take 50 years to fully answer. This is the story of how their friendship became a body of work, and how that work became the foundation you see today.
Co-author of the original transformative EI research. Licensed psychologist, professor, and lifelong researcher of the skills that allow people to flourish. Co-developed the field's first assessment instruments alongside Gary Low, beginning with the Personal Skills Map.
Co-creator and developer of TEI learning and development. Licensed psychologist, founding faculty of EITRI, and architect of the annual Institute for Transformative Emotional Intelligence (2004). Has spent 45+ years extending TEI research and practice across schools, universities, and organizations worldwide.
Transformative Emotional Intelligence is our voice in the world.
The Question Begins
Nelson and Low — friends since first grade, both Texas-licensed psychologists — begin original research with a 1,200+ item pool aimed at understanding what differentiates healthy, successful people from those who aren't.
The First Instrument
The Relationship Skills Map (RSM) is published — the first in what will become a family of positive assessment instruments rooted in skills-based, person-centered learning.
Institute for Emotional Intelligence
Nelson and Low co-found the annual Institute for Emotional Intelligence — establishing the conference that becomes the gathering place for practitioners, researchers, and educators in the TEI community.
EILS Founded
Emotional Intelligence Learning Systems is co-founded with Dr. Rick Hammett — providing the operational home for TEI assessments, training, and curriculum. The Personal Excellence Map is published the same year.
The Second Edition
Emotional Intelligence: Achieving Academic and Career Excellence (2nd ed.) is published — codifying the framework that has by then informed dozens of doctoral dissertations and applied programs.
A Foundation Born from Loss
Following the heartbreaking passing of Dr. Darwin Nelson, Dr. Rick Hammett founds the Transformative EI Foundation — a 501(c)(3) created to honor, preserve, and carry forward the 50-year research legacy.
The Definitive Volume
Transformative Emotional Intelligence for a Positive Career and Life is published by Low and Hammett — offering the most complete articulation of the framework's theory, instruments, and applied practice to date.
The Work Continues
With 80+ doctoral dissertations completed, an annual conference, an active foundation, and ongoing scholarship — the work continues exactly as Nelson and Low envisioned: research-derived, person-centered, and built on emotional intelligence as a daily practice.
A Body of Scholarship, Fifty Years Deep
Transformative Emotional Intelligence is grounded in five decades of research, scholarship, and applied study. The works below represent a small selection of the foundational and recent publications that shape the field.
Transformative Emotional Intelligence for a Positive Career and Life
The most complete articulation of the TEI framework — its theory, instruments, and applied practice. The definitive volume on transformative EI as a learnable, daily-practice discipline.
Using an Emotional Intelligence Learning System for Person-Centered Curriculum Development and Teaching
A comprehensive chapter applying the TEI framework to inclusive online teaching and learning environments. Defines and presents the five-step Emotional Learning System in detail.
Emotional Intelligence: Achieving Academic and Career Excellence
The foundational textbook codifying the framework. By 2011, the work had already informed dozens of doctoral dissertations and applied programs across higher education.
Emotional Intelligence: A Transformative Theory and Applied Model of Positive Personal Change
The theory-defining paper articulating TEI as a transformative model — published in the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association. A key reference for the field's research literature.
Personal Excellence: Development and Validation of a New Measure of Emotional Intelligence
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A Comparison of Levels of Personal Skills in Distressed and Non-Distressed Marriages
Dr. Kaye Nelson's foundational doctoral dissertation, completed during the early years of the original TEI research program. One of the first studies applying the personal-skills framework to relationship dynamics.
The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Practices: A Cross-Cultural Study
An international study examining how TEI principles operate across cultures — comparing academic leaders in Taiwan and the United States. Demonstrates the global applicability of the framework.
Teaching and Learning Excellence: Engaging Self and Others with Emotional Intelligence
Educator-focused application of TEI principles — bringing together all four core authors of the framework's modern era. A practical guide for teaching with emotional intelligence at the center.
The works above are a curated sample. The full bibliography includes 125+ books, articles, dissertations, and theses spanning five decades of TEI research and application.
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