photo of Sunny Summers

Sunny Summers

Founding School Leader
New Harmony High

Sunny is a passionate and dedicated public school educator. In the recent past, she's had great success as a
teacher leader, department head and instructional coach at New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School.

Her achievements include having the school's only 100% passing ratio for the English II EOC, as well as co-developing a new, innovative English curriculum to meet the needs of incoming sophomores with writing deficiencies. Her World Lit classroom has been host to camera crews filming real-time sessions for teacher education as well as radio producers test driving podcasts and teaching storytelling. Sunny has taught Algebra, Geometry, reading intervention, 8.5 writing, and English I and II. As a founding teacher at ReNew Accelerated High School, she received Teacher of the Year Honors.

Sunny received her BA in English and Art (Magna Cum Laude, All College Honors, Departmental Honors) from the University of Saint Mary in 2001, and her Masters in Teaching from the Relay Graduate School of Education (Honors) in 2015. She completed teachNOLA in 2011.

Prior to becoming a teacher, Sunny had a successful nine-year career as Vice President for Content Development in the business of adult education, where data mining and instructional coaching were critical. She has extensive non-profit and volunteer experience including advising the founder of The HALO Foundation and serving as Board Vice President and teaching English in Nicaragua.

Sunny was a founding member of the New Harmony High design team that won the nationally competitive XQ: The Super School Project, receiving a $10 million grant to open a public high school focused on coastal restoration and preservation. She is currently serving as the school leader for New Harmony. Summers and her husband share a Bywater home in New Orleans with Harry the cat.

You can catch her marching in front of the Treme Brass Band on Lundi Gras as El Capitan Ad Infinitum for Krewe of Redbeans and Rice in New Orleans.

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]

Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.

Events featuring Sunny Summers
Events featuring Sunny Summers