Fonda Sutton 

 

Fonda Sutton has extensive experience in program development and administration; nonprofit and public sector management; and research on evidence-based practices in education and public policy. She has also provided specialized assistance to nationally-based education philanthropies, designing and implementing evaluations designed to support and sustain their education-related investments. She joined the District of Columbia’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education in March 2007 as director of policy research and analysis, the division of the agency which provides research, analysis and information-sharing for policy makers and stakeholders of the city's education system.

From 2002 until 2007 Ms. Sutton served as a program associate and research analyst with New American Schools and the American Institutes for Research, focusing primarily on new school development; evaluation and improvement of national school reform models; and consulting to states and urban districts. She has developed and managed projects providing strategic consulting related to new school startup, charter authorizer practices, governance and leadership development and is a cofounder of two Washington, DC-based public charter schools.

Ms. Sutton began her career in higher education as an admissions officer at Georgetown University; she later worked as an administrator of student volunteer programs and student affairs while pursuing a law degree at the university’s Law Center. She worked as an attorney in the Washington, DC office of King & Spalding before dedicating her career to the improvement of urban, public education.

A native of eastern North Carolina, she is a 1987 graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and its law school in 1995; and lives in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, DC.