Welcome Mia Sullivan to the CPPD and GTAN Team

 Penn State Teach Ag! would like to welcome Mia Sullivan as the newest Center for Professional Personnel Development team member. She is currently the Global Teach Ag Network Teacher-in-Residence and assists with PSU Teacher Education. 

Mia says, "Penn State was not on my radar until I participated in the GLAG19" which was put on by the Global Teach Ag Network. At the time she was a secondary agriculture teacher trying to better herself for her students. In 2021, Mia started thinking about pursuing her doctorate in agricultural education in hopes of teaching at the collegiate level. "I had already had 1.5 (COVID was weird) student teachers in my classroom and thoroughly enjoyed working with them. It inspired me to play a more active role in preparing the future of our profession". After a doctoral assistantship in Agricultural and Extension Education/ Education, Development, and Community Engagement was posted by Penn State. "And that would be the moment I put my hand on the doorknob to walk through the Penn State Ag Ed door. My BS (University of Kentucky) and MS (Tennessee State University) were both blue/white and had feline mascots so it just made sense to keep with that and become a Nittany Lion", Mia shared.

Before beginning her journey at Penn State, Mia taught agriculture in Tennessee for nine years. Throughout her teaching experience, she taught at four different schools, two of them being her high school and middle school alma mater. Mia attended Eagleton College & Career Academy in middle school and the current principal was her high school ag teacher. The middle school transitioned to a 6-12 grade program and her principal had planned to add agricultural education. Mia says, "He asked if I'd be interested in being the ag teacher and starting this brand new 8-12 program. This experience holds a special place in my heart because the community is the same one that raised me. The students there are the same students that I grew up with. It was such an honor to work with my principal and the supportive community in creating this amazing opportunity for these kids." 

In her role with GTAN (Global Teach Ag Network), she facilitates learning and develops a curriculum for the GTAN program for undergraduate students: GOALs. This is a virtual course that includes 18 students from Penn State, the University of Idaho, Kentucky State University, North Carolina A&T University, Tuskegee University, and the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore. She also assists Dr. Foster in the AEE 412 Methods of Teaching in Ag & Env. to prepare those eight students for their student teaching experience in the Spring. 

Mia has been a CASE Lead Teacher for three years and is certified in AFNR, ABF, ASA, ASP, NRE, and AgX. She did international travel as an undergrad in 2010 to Gisha, Scotland. This past summer she traveled to Uganda with the GTAN Teach Ag Uganda experience funded through the USDE Fulbright Hayes Program. Her plans are to continue with international travel and research and develop students to become future agriculture educators and professionals.  

In her free time, Mia loves working on restoring cast iron, canning and preserving food, and cheering for the Tennessee Volunteers Football Team on Saturday. She has been married for 11 years to her husband Joe and they have a Great Dane named Charlie Brown and eight chickens back in Tennessee. 

Connect with Mia

Email: mcs6395@psu.edu

LinkedIn

Erica Teagarden

CPPD Student Worker

Agricultural and Extension Education

Class of 2026