Dr. Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn is an educator, speaker, trainer and writer.
Sarah-SoonLing (she/her/hers) was born in Bangkok, Thailand into a mixed-race Malaysian Chinese and white American family. A classic “third culture kid,” she grew up moving between various East and Southeast Asian countries and the Washington DC area. Sarah moved to the Deep South in 2009, and she has now lived there longer than anywhere else. Her experiences first as a classroom teacher and later as a teacher educator inform her beliefs about the role that education can and must play in the realization of social justice.
She owes very much to her ancestors.
Sarah was first certified as a high school English teacher and later spent most of her years in the classroom teaching third and fourth grade. In 2011 she was named Teacher of the Year at Lakeside Upper Elementary School in Lake Village, Arkansas. As a professional trainer and coach, Sarah’s areas of focus have included workplace cultures, leadership skills, and diversity, equity and inclusion. Sarah is a LinkedIn Learning Instructor and the author of “Exclusion and the Chinese American Story,” now available for preorder.
Sarah has a B.A. from Haverford College, an M.A. in Social Justice and Education from University College London’s Institute of Education, and an Ed.D. from Johns Hopkins University. She is based out of Oxford, Mississippi.
Ed.D.
Johns Hopkins University
2020
M.A., Social Justice and Education
Institute of Education
University College London
2012
B.A., English
Haverford College
2009
Specializations
include
Inclusion and cultural competence in the workplace
Asian American identity and history
Rural education, with an emphasis on the rural Deep South
The model minority myth and its relationship to anti-Blackness
Histories of race and racism in the United States
Professional learning design and facilitation
Online teaching and learning
The television series Survivor
