Dr. Angela Patterson: Coming Full Circle with ACSI

ACSI popped up on Dr. Angela Patterson’s radar several times before she was hired as ACSI’s Incoming Senior Director for International Schools, beginning in August. Patterson will overlap in her new role from August through December with current Senior Director Tim Shuman, who is retiring after 15 years of service with ACSI.

Patterson’s history with ACSI dates to 2002, when she participated in the Third Culture Kid Pre-Field Orientation, now known as PFO2Go. That orientation helped her transition to her new role as a fourth-grade teacher at an international school in China. She eventually spent 21 years in China in various teaching and leadership roles.

“I hadn’t really been aware of Christian education until I prepared to move abroad,” she said. “I think the pre-field orientation is one of the greatest things ACSI does to prepare monocultural individuals to go abroad.”

The orientation wasn’t her only touch point with ACSI. Later in 2002, she attended her first International Christian Educators Conference in Penang, Malaysia.

The next year, she became the Accreditation Coordinator at her school. Because her school was in China, they were unable to have ACSI accreditation, but that didn’t stop Patterson from getting help from ACSI.

“I downloaded all the ACSI documents to make sure we were meeting those standards for biblical worldview,” she said. “Even though we were going through an external accreditation process, I wanted to hit those marks internally.” 

Patterson used ACSI resources as she developed her school’s curriculum, helped teachers gain ACSI teacher certification if they didn’t have an education degree, and pulled from ACSI’s research efforts as she completed her master’s and doctoral work.

Now, Patterson will serve in international education in a different format, having returned to the United States in 2023 to be closer to family. 

“I didn’t know if the chapter of my international school career was closed, but I waited on God’s timing, and by waiting, this position became available,” Patterson said. “I’m incredibly excited."

ACSI’s International School Division comprises approximately 170 international Christian schools that serve 47,000 students across 70 countries worldwide. International schools typically offer a Western-style education in the English language, resulting in a high school diploma that is recognized and accepted at universities and colleges worldwide.   

In her role leading the International School Division, Patterson intends to knit different schools and educators together in the movement of global Christian education.

“I am naturally a connector of people and content,” she said. “When I have a conversation with a head of school, I try to connect them with someone else doing something similar.” 

"I want to help international schools have a vision for national Christian education where they live,” Patterson said. “If they have teachers on their campus who are nationals and believers, and who have a heart for their own country, how do we help them learn, grow, and multiply?”

“I’m excited that Dr. Patterson is joining ACSI Global to be the next Senior Director of the International School Division,” Shuman said. “Her two decades of experience in key leadership positions in a large international school system will be an incredible asset to the division in the years ahead.”