History of SASUP

Southeastern Association of School-University Partnerships (SASUP) (formerly, ), a non-profit organization, was organized to provide an affordable place for teams of local or regional PDS teacher-scholars, principals, and university researchers to present their work; affordability was attained by lowering registration and travel costs for large teams. In particular, SASUP was organized for P-12 teachers/principals/administrators and university personnel in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.

The work of SASUP is collaboratively accomplished by its membership with the focus on promotion and advocacy for school-university partnerships primarily within the Professional Development Schools framework.

The idea of SASUP came out from conversations of Georgia State University faculty. Dr. Susan Ogletree and Dr. Joseph Feinburg spearheaded bringing this organization to life and held an initial conference in 2017. During the conference, they reached out to PDS faculty across the Southeast to formalize the organization. Together with Dr. Janna Dresden, Erica Gilbertson, and Dr. Kathy Thompson from the University of Georgia and Dr. Melissa A. Baker from the University of South Carolina, they formalized SASUP in February 2018 as a non-profit, regional organization that aligns with its national organization, NAPDS.

The organization was formerly known as the PDS SouthEastern Regional Vision for Education, or PDS SERVE until late 2022, when the current name was adopted.