PreK–12 Equity Advisory Board

Dr. Christian Sawyer is a nationally-recognized leader in education, serving as a Director of Schools in Denver Public Schools. Charged with founding the district's newly launched Elevate Network to accelerate schools out of State Performance Accountability, Dr. Sawyer works closely with his school leaders to implement the nation's most advanced instructional leadership strategies. In the most recently released state academic testing, Dr. Sawyer and his team of elementary school principals he supervised boosted student achievement to accelerate rapidly out of turnaround status and significantly improved early literacy proficiency rates, among the highest growth in Denver, through a focus on the Science of Reading.

Previously, Dr. Sawyer led innovative change with school strategic planning for the district and was principal of one of Denver Public Schools’ largest urban, Title 1 middle schools. Dr. Sawyer and his team were often a district and national stand-out for teacher leadership and technology-infused blended learning; resulting in a reduction in the achievement and opportunity gaps and improvement on State and district performance frameworks.

Likewise, in Nashville, Sawyer and his team transformed their school from "target" status to "satisfactory" standing on the district's Academic Performance Framework, through founding a nationally-recognized teacher-leadership model, advancing STEM learning, and focusing on social-emotional learning. Prior, Dr. Sawyer served as a high school teacher and as "Teacher in Residence" at Vanderbilt's top-ranked Peabody College of Education. Additionally, he has taught at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and was named an Atlantik-Brueke Fellow, studying international education. Recently, he partnered with TNTP to design a robust adult-learning program for Social Studies Education licensure.

Dr. Sawyer's innovative K–12 teaching led to his recognition as National Outstanding Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the National Council for the Social Studies; the Tennessee Outstanding Social Studies Teacher of the Year by the Tennessee Council for the Social Studies; a Tennessee Distinguished Educator; and the "Educator Award" from the Nashville Mayor's Commission on People with Disabilities.