Sue Campbell

Activist, Artist, Athlete, Change Agent, Connector, Educator/Teacher, Environmentalist, Idea generator, Producer, Student, World traveler

I teach middle school English and visual art at a French American bilingual school where I have been a TEDx co-organizer for TEDxYouth@EB since our pilot ten years ago. I have been the Curriculum Coordinator, and Sustainability Coordinator and designed one of the first School Maker Faires. I teach and co-design unique curriculum for middle school English and Visual Art harmonized with the French National System and aligned with the California standards, a commitment that ensures an on-going global dialogue and collaboration about what matters in international education. An independent school English teacher for 34 years, I have also taught high school English at Philips Andover, the Punahou School, the Brooks School and Swiss Semester in Zermatt, Switzerland. I have a BA from Cornell University and a MA in English Literature from Middlebury College Bread Loaf School of English.

I am passionate about inquiry based teaching, ideas, creativity, art, design, writing, bilingualism, environmental sustainability and the intersection of the arts and humanities with science. I love organizing creative opportunities and systems that flatten hierarchies and provide networks for the sharing of ideas locally and globally. I also am passionate about international exchange. In 2011 I developed a sustainability curriculum as part of a fellowship to visit Rwanda to study sustainability initiatives there. I continue to be energized by partnerships that help us see opportunities for systemic change. I am passionate about the critical importance of student voices and empowering student self expression for mental wellness, self advocacy, artistic innovation, community resilience and social justice. I am also passionate about the wilderness and the wonder and joy I find surfing, skiing, and hiking with my friends and family.

Many tweens and teens have been in crisis because of the social isolation of shelter in place, and zoom and hybrid schooling. In the American West, the pandemic coincided with the murder of George Floyd, wild fires and the U.S. Capitol insurrection. What we are not hearing enough about is the devastating mental health impact that social and environmental upheavals have had on students of color, and LGBTQ+ youth. With the return to in-person school, all students need avenues to understand and express anger, frustration and grief and develop agency and self advocacy through knowledge to action projects and artistic expression.

Skiing, surfing, short fiction writing, figurative painting and that I was the coxswain for the the U.S. NCAA National Championship Women's 8 in 1989.