Sonya Brown has been teaching humanities in the Boston Public Schools for eleven years, ten of those at Boston Arts Academy. She graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. in Government and Philosophy, and specialized in teaching and curriculum development at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her work with adolescents began as director of two Boston youth programs: Boston Area Health Education Center’s Middle School Program and The Teen Line, a teen crisis intervention service. Previous to BAA, she worked at Harvard’s Institute for the Arts and Civic Dialogue exploring how artists can use their work to promote social justice. As a humanities teacher, Ms. Brown creates interdisciplinary courses of sociology, civics, history and literature. Experienced in teaching literacy skills to elementary-age students through adults, she has spent the last few years developing instructional techniques and assessment systems to improve students’ achievement and enjoyment in reading and writing. Ms. Brown was recipient of the Boston Teacher of the Year Award 2004 and Margot Stern Strom Teaching Award 2010.