John Schmitt is a dedicated educational leader, history teacher, and 2026 Fulbright Fellow to Taiwan, specializing in instructional leadership, curriculum design, and social-emotional learning. He currently serves as an Upper School History Teacher at the Mirman School in Los Angeles, where he has directed the Resident Teacher Program and designs project-based, culturally responsive curricula. Previously, John was the Social Studies Department Chairperson at Brooklyn Collaborative Studies, where he achieved a 100% passage rate on state Performance-Based Assessment Tasks. During his tenure, he secured a competitive 2020 Fund for Teachers Grant to develop a decolonized curriculum using oral histories from the Sisseton-Wahpeton Indian Nation. More recently, he served as Dean of Students for the CTY Johns Hopkins Summer Camp in Los Angeles. A passionate advocate for others, John frequently facilitates professional development on anti-racist teaching and advises multiple student affinity groups. He regularly presents at regional and national conferences, including NCSS, CCSS, and Teachers College, Columbia University. John holds an MA in Adolescent Social Studies Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a BA in Psychology from SUNY Fredonia. Beyond the classroom, he is a championship-winning middle school soccer coach and an accomplished professional musician with over 8 million online streams.