Xiaohang Sumner joined Search Associates in 2019, bringing more than forty years in international K-12 education and an early career in business and consulting before that. She has been an IB student, teacher, examiner, teacher trainer, school leader, and consultant across North America, Europe, and Asia, and there are few vantage points on this work she has not occupied.
Between 2010 and 2019 she served as founding director of three international schools in China, building academic programs from the ground up, recruiting and developing faculty, and leading schools through growth, accreditation, and strategic change. She served as Principal Examiner for Theory of Knowledge in Chinese for the International Baccalaureate Organization, work through which she has advocated for critical thinking, inquiry-based learning, and international-mindedness in Chinese international schools.
Since 2005, Xiaohang has worked in teacher development, leadership training, school governance, and board education, contributing through workshops, mentoring, and conference presentations to the professional growth of educators and school leaders across Hong Kong, mainland China, and the wider Asia-Pacific. She was named one of the ten most influential school leaders in international education in China, and speaks regularly at international education conferences. She also helped establish several educational and not-for-profit organizations, among them the United World College National Committee in mainland China, the YK Pao Centre for Teaching and Learning, and the Chinese International Educators Association, all of which continue to support professional learning and collaboration across the region.
At Search Associates, Xiaohang has advised thousands of international educators and has organized the Hong Kong Job Fair for seven consecutive years. Having been a teacher, an examiner, a trainer, a founder, a school leader, and now a recruiter, she can speak to almost any part of this process from direct experience, which is what makes her guidance practical rather than general, whatever stage an educator has reached.
