Ting Sun

Educator/Teacher, Global soul, Performer, Public servant, Social entrepreneur

Ting Lan Sun is Co-founder of the Sacramento-based Natomas Charter School (NCS) and served as its Executive Director from 2013-2019. She has more than 30 years of experience in the field of education as a teacher, administrator, and educational reformer. Prior to her tenure as Executive Director of NCS, Ting served as Educational Programs Director, leading curriculum, instruction, and professional development. From 1997–2000, she was an Educational Programs Consultant in the California Department of Education’s Charter Schools Unit where she participated in the development of charter school administrative policies and regulations, and the administration of the federal public charter schools grant program. She has also served as a senior consultant for Cambridge Education, an international school quality review and educational consulting firm. Ting was Vice President of Leadership and Quality for the California Charter Schools Association from 2003-2006 where she developed and implemented the Association’s quality assurance strategy and initiatives, including standards articulation, quality site visits and program reviews. In 2015, Ting was appointed to the California State Board of Education (SBE) by Governor Jerry Brown. She also previously served on California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) from 2007-2011 and was Chair of the CTC from 2009-2011. In the local community, Ting serves on the board of the Golden 1 Credit Union and on the Justice Anthony M. Kennedy Judicial Library Learning Center Foundation. She was named a Woman Who Means Business by the Sacramento Business Journal in 2017. Ting received her bachelor’s degree in Latin and English from Austin College, a master’s degree in education from Stanford University, and a doctorate of education from the University of California at Davis.

The arts, reading, learning, and travel.

In 2008, I founded the One Voice Project, under the long shadow of 9/11. I wanted to connect her students with middle eastern, Muslim student to create a bridge for understanding. The project initially brought together American teenagers from Natomas Charter School in Sacramento, California and Turkish teenagers from the Sungurbey Academy in Niğde, Turkey in a cross-cultural dialogue aimed at building international goodwill and understanding – and, as a result, breaking down the stereotypes of what it means to be a teen in a western and in a Middle Eastern nation. Over the past 10 years, the One Voice project has since expanded to schools in China and most recently to Costa Rica. One Voice connects youth from different countries to dialogue and have conversations to find what they have in common (dreams, hopes and worries) and then use the arts of their culture (dance, music, song, spoken word) to express those common themes and ideas. Students from both nations then together and create a joint performance of to voice these ideas, traveling to each other’s countries to perform to home audiences. The One Voice Project is based on two premises: 1) The belief that the youth of our nations will be the next generation to guide the world to a place that is based on tolerance, understanding and peaceful coexistence. 2) The belief that the performing and fine arts have the ability to transcend cultural and language barriers and can best serve as the vehicle to build connections by expressing what is common among all of us as humans. I was inspired by my travel to Turkey where my hosts showed me that building relationships and making personal connections – one person at a time – is a critical aspect of to breaking down the misunderstandings, stereotypes and fears that separate us. Self-expression through the arts is an original and creative way for our youth to express their feelings and thoughts about themselves and about others – one that breaks through language barriers. The project has enlisted at least 25 cultural organizations to support One Voice Turkey and One Voice China and now One Voice Costa Rica. The city and county of Sacramento recognizes the OV Project as well as the cities of Istanbul, Nidge, and Jinan and the Shandong Province. One Voice has also gained media recognition in each of its partner countries.

Charter Schools, Curriculum and Instrution, Educational Reform, Leadership Development, Public Policy

The daughter of Chinese immigrants who came to the US for its education system, I didn’t speak a word of English when I started school in kindergarten. I didn’t learn the alphabet until third grade, but by fifth grade, in the US bicentennial year of 1976, I won a regional essay contest, “What American Means to Me.” I fell for the American Dream - hook, line and sinker. My life work in education is to make this dream achievable for all.

acting....