OUR ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Sumaya Abu-Haidar, Founder

Sumaya was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Fleeing the civil war, Sumaya and her family moved to the United States when she was 12. After completing high school, she attended Dartmouth College, and majored in political philosophy with an additional concentration in education. The combination of these two areas of study gave Sumaya a lens through which to understand the political and social chaos that had defined her childhood in Lebanon. As her studies progressed, she became increasingly committed to exploring the ways in which schools can strengthen and re-vitalize a democracy by educating responsible and engaged democratic citizens. After graduating from Dartmouth, Sumaya spent two years teaching high school and middle school in Alabama, an experience that further fueled her desire to study the relationship between education and democracy. She left Alabama for a Ph.D. program in political theory and education at the University of Colorado at Boulder. During her five years of graduate work in Boulder, Sumaya's research, teaching and community work all focused in different ways on the relationship between democratic theory, education and social justice. Sumaya is the mother of Owen, Watershed School class of 2019.

Rexford Brown, Ph.D.

Founder of P.S. 1 Charter School

Shawna Crocker

Coordinator, Project Learning Tree
Colorado State Forest Service

Janet Durgin, M.A.T.

Founding Head of Sonoma Academy

Robert Frodeman, Ph.D.

Director of Global Climate Change and Society Program
Center for Science and Technology Policy Research

John Gans

Executive Director
National Outdoor Leadership School

Joseph Kerski, Ph.D.

Geographer
United States Geological Survey

Connie Knapp

Community Mapping Program Manager
Orton Family Foundation

Barton Lewis

Contributing Editor, National Geographic TRAVELER
Special Projects, Lunchbox Lessons
Managing Director, RainForest Institute
Project Director, Lightpath MediaWorks
Project Director, Knowledge Oasis

Mark McCaffrey

Science Communications Specialist
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Tony Moats

Co-Founder of Sojourner School

Roger Pielke, Ph.D.

Director, Center for Science and Technology Policy Research
Assoc. Director, Environmental Studies Program at UC Boulder

Dorothy Rupert

Former Colorado State Senator

Jacqueline Smethurst, Ed.D.

Strategic Planning Consultant to Schools
Former Head of Northfield Mount Hermon School