Somer Lewis has been elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS). Lewis is director of the Professional Development System school-university partnership at UNCW’s Watson College of Education. She began her three-year term in July.
As WCE’s PDS director, Lewis oversees a partnership that consists of 12 school districts, including one Department of Defense District, a K-8 university laboratory school, and two public charter schools. The partnership supports a continuum of professional learning for students, teachers, school leaders and university faculty. PDS also supports opportunities that include teacher recruitment and retention, support for pre-service teachers, and leadership initiatives for veteran teachers and school administrators.
“It is an honor to be elected to the NAPDS Board,” Lewis said. “I have spent the entirety of my 20 years in education engaged in our PDS school-university partnership. I welcome the opportunity to apply these experiences to the work of the NAPDS as it continues to advocate for the importance of school-university partnerships, and their impact on student learning, pre-service teacher development, and the reciprocal growth of educators and school and university leadership.”
Lewis earned a degree in English with secondary teacher licensure from UNCW. She began her career as a high school English teacher and is National Board Certified. Her involvement with PDS began as an undergraduate student, and continued as a partnership teacher, teacher-in-residence and university supervisor at UNCW. She has served as WCE’s PDS director for the past nine years. Recent projects include co-founding the UNCW Educators of Color Network, participating alongside district and community college partners in the NC Educator Pipeline Collaborative, and engaging with PDS colleagues across the country as a presenter in a research convening funded by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and Georgia State University with sponsorship from AERA’s PDS Research Special Interest Group.
“Over the course of my career, I have worn many hats, viewed PDS through a variety of lenses, and engaged in work authentically grounded in the mutually beneficial needs of P-20 students, teachers, school leaders and faculty,” she said. “I look forward to working with the NAPDS leadership team and the organization at-large to expand on this work.”
The National Association for Professional Development Schools was created in 2005 to support school-university partnerships. NAPDS and will officially change their name to the National Association for School-University Partnerships (NASUP) in 2024. The organization advances the education profession by providing leadership, advocacy and support to sustain professional development schools as learning communities that improve student learning, prepare educators through clinical practice, provide reciprocal professional development, and conduct shared inquiry.
The Watson College of Education’s Professional Development System is WCE’s most longstanding and comprehensive partnership initiative. The partnership was initiated in 1993 to provide classroom learning opportunities for future teachers. PDS has grown into a nationally-recognized network of relationships that provides support for WCE teacher education students and support for teachers as they move through their careers. PDS also partners with teachers and district leaders to enhance learning opportunities for students throughout the region.
This article has the following tags: Accomplishments Watson College of Education