Stormie Sutton is an elementary school principal at MHUSD.
As an elementary school principal, Stormie leads with a heart for advocacy, equity, and servant leadership. She prioritizes building authentic relationships with students, staff, and families to create a joyful, inclusive learning environment. Her work centers on supporting teachers, empowering student voice, and ensuring that all learners feel seen, valued, and inspired to grow. Serving as a collaborative instructional leader, she fosters a culture of continuous improvement and shared accountability. Grounded in empathy and purpose, Stormie advocates for systems that honor every child’s potential and promote educational justice. She believes that transformational leadership begins with listening, learning, and leading in love.
Stormie chose to enroll in LMU’s Ed.D. program because she was seeking community, purpose, and a deeper platform for change. As a Black female educator, she has often felt isolated in a profession lacking representation. LMU offered both a rigorous academic experience and a commitment to equity that aligned with her mission to dismantle systems of oppression in education. She wanted to expand her impact beyond the classroom—supporting future educators, challenging assimilationist practices, and addressing how the economic and emotional exploitation of teachers perpetuates inequity for both educators and students.
Her dissertation, The Evolution of Working Women’s Needs: The Impact of Capitalism, Sexism, and the Feminization of Teaching on Four Generations of California Female Educators, examines the systemic challenges faced by four generations of female educators in California, focusing on how capitalism, sexism, and the feminization of teaching have shaped their professional and personal lives. Using a critical narrative approach grounded in social reproduction theory, the study reveals how gendered norms and economic structures have historically devalued teaching as “women’s work,” resulting in low wages, limited autonomy, and emotional exploitation. The findings highlight how these inequities contribute to teacher attrition and broader socioeconomic disparities. Her research calls for policy reforms that honor the labor of educators and promote a more just, sustainable profession.
Participating in LMU’s Ed.D. program transformed both Stormie’s personal and professional impact in education. It deepened her commitment to advocacy, sharpened her lens on systemic inequities, and equipped her to lead with courage, scholarship, and heart. Through critical research on the feminization of teaching, she uncovered generational patterns of exploitation that mirror her own lived experiences and those of the women she leads. The program expanded her capacity to serve as a culturally responsive, equity-centered school leader, while affirming her voice as a scholar-practitioner committed to justice, joy, and transformational change in education.