Sara Davis Powell is a teacher-from elementary, middle, and high school classrooms to teacher preparation as a professor and chair of the Department of Education at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. She is an advocate of active student engagement, emphasizing a balance of theory and developmentally responsive and academically rigorous practice. She is involved in local classrooms through the facilitation of professional development, supervision of clinical interns, and research and writing about a variety of education issues. She is also a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences, where her enthusiasm for teaching and students has proven contagious.

Powell's PhD in educational administration, supervision, and curriculum development is from the University of Colorado at Denver. Her most recent books include An Introduction to Education: Choosing Your Teaching Path (2009) and Introduction to Middle School (2nd ed., in press).