Dr. Sophia J. Burch, Northeastern State University, Professor of Educational Leadership
2023 DaVinci Creativity Fellow
Dr. Burch teaches online graduate courses in the Instructional Leadership program. She loves all things assessment, measurement, and evaluation, which has translated into serving as the College of Education’s first assessment director, CAEP Coordinator for the 2019 visit resulting in the College’s receipt of the Frank Murray Leadership Award, internal and external evaluator for a number of projects, and creator of and instructor for undergraduate and graduate courses in assessment and measurements. Her DaVinci project investigates the impact of teaching creatively on teachers’ perceptions of their own ability to teach creatively.
Kenya Guidry-Sturm, Harding Fine Arts Academy, Teacher of Mathematics
2023 DaVinci A+ Fellow & Teacher of the Year
Kenya Guidry-Sturm is a teacher at Harding Fine Arts Academy in Oklahoma City, OK where they teach math, psychology, and financial literacy. Kenya strives to help students create meaningful connections to material at every opportunity. The A+ essentials have been transformative in doing this because they allow for student creativity, ownership, engagement, and collaboration. “A+ Schools have shaped the ways that I look at everything, from lesson planning to seating charts, because everything has an impact on the student’s learning outcome.” Kenya holds master’s degrees in both sociology and school administration.
Dr. Jeanetta Sims, University of Central Oklahoma, Professor of Marketing
2022 DaVinci Fellow
Dr. Sims is the founder of Diverse Student Scholars, an interdisciplinary undergraduate research program in its 17th year. Through Diverse Student Scholars, 80+ students have accomplished 105+ presentations, 25+ publications, and 40+ funded student grants with 100% funding rate. The 2022 DaVinci Fellowship provided support to create a broader undergraduate research viral eco-system using the 15-year body of Diverse Student Scholars work and intellectual contributions for new publications, showcase activities, and online community support. Presentations showcasing Diverse Student Scholars as a model were made to R1 faculty at the University of Alabama and the University of Kentucky, as well as to graduate student mentors in the HBCU Communication Pipeline program.
Dr. Emily Stacey, Rose State College, Professor of Political Science
2023 DaVinci Fellow
Emily Stacey is a Professor of Political Science at Rose State College where she serves as the Program Coordinator for the College’s Political Science program. Dr. Stacey has focused her love of politics and democracy into fostering a new generation of well-informed, engaged citizens via a variety of methods. The DaVinci Fellowship Award allowed Dr. Stacey to coordinate a second annual Advocacy Day, where legislators, community stakeholders, and non-governmental organizations come to campus and guide students in advocating for the issues they care about and themselves. The award also helped fund the book club that Dr. Stacey coordinates, which is reading “How Democracies Die” for the Spring semester, in build-up to the 2024 election. Dr. Stacey is passionate about democratic participation and seeks to foster excitement about the American political system within the youth. Dr. Stacey earned her Ph.D. in Political and Cultural Studies from Swansea University, United Kingdom.