Dr. Dan Sturdevant

Senior Engagement Executive, Districts and Channels

Dr. Dan Sturdevant serves as Optima’s Senior Engagement Executive, Districts and Channels where he is responsible for expanding Optima’s customer footprint within public school districts and channel partners.

Raised on a boarding school campus where his parents served in various roles from classroom teachers, coaches, and dorm parents, to senior administrators and Head of School, Dr. Sturdevant has been in and around formal education his whole life.

Upon graduation from Wheaton College (IL), Dan moved to Charlotte, NC to begin his own teaching practice at Providence Day School. Within a few years, he married Christa (also Dr. Sturdevant) and moved to Raleigh, NC, where he continued teaching and earned a masters degree in liberal arts at Duke University. At Duke, Dan’s research was focused on identifying primary skills for future student success, and the learning environments in which they are best developed.

After Duke, Dan went on to UNC Chapel Hill, where he earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership. At UNC, in addition to completing coursework focused on effective academic and organizational leadership, Dan completed a dissertation that evaluated charter schools in North Carolina and assessed their objective efficiency using financial data and student performance outcomes.

Dan was the founding Head of School of Optima Academy Online, where he scaled enrollment by 200% year over year, and had 98% faculty retention. Dan is committed to experiential education, student success, and building effective and healthy school cultures. He has spent over a decade in the classroom, and has experience leading schools of all grade levels. He firmly believes in Optima’s mission and the power of virtual reality to shape an informed and successful next generation.

Outside of school, the Drs. Sturdevant have two wonderful daughters and enjoy spending time together outside, hiking, biking, and exploring new places.