JoEllen Suter

Jo Ellen Suter taught health, physical education, and both classroom and in-car driver and traffic safety education at Osbourn Park High School from 1979 through 2011. During her tenure she coached 21 of those years. Head coaching duties included JV cheerleading and JV volleyball, varsity tennis, as well as assistant coach for varsity basketball. However, her pride and joy were in coaching was the nineteen years she worked as the varsity gymnastics head coach.  

Her teams excelled, winning numerous awards including the 1985 AAA Virginia State Gymnastics championship. Several of her gymnasts were individual all-around Virginia State champions. She was honored four times as Coach of the Year by Journal Messenger and Potomac News.  

During the last eleven years of her career, Ms. Suter served as the in-car driver education coordinator for OPHS. Her attention to details and her insistence that driving skills be taken seriously as well as be performed correctly, lead many of her students, year after year, to excel as new drivers and place in the top five winning performances at the Virginia Association for Driver Education and Traffic Safety (VADETS) Driving Rodeo. One year her students took all 5 of the top places and were featured in The Washington Post. 

Before retirement and now during retirement, Ms. Suter is an independent educational consultant and often works with driver and traffic safety education curriculum development, projects, and teacher training throughout the United States. Her travels about the U.S. provide teachers with information and activities related to instruction and what’s new in traffic safety. These programs include but are not limited to instruction and information for: 1) hands-on ideas that provide learners in the classroom with a frame of reference for in-car skills and 2) behind-the-wheel teaching and learning theories training.                   

Ms. Suter has worked with the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA) as a program developer for Tire Safety with Michelin North America. She is now working with ADTSEA on the National Curriculum Standards Committee. She also assisted with development and implementation for the Parent and Teen Driver  

Education Program for the PWCS. This program is now the model for schools throughout Virginia.  

Ms. Suter has served on the Board of Directors of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA). She has served as President of the Southeast Region of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (SERA ADTSEA), the Virginia Association for Driver Education and Traffic Safety (VADETS), and the Board of Directors for these organizations. Her colleagues have recognized her for her contributions and work in driver education and traffic safety. She received the VADETS Teacher of the Year Award and was recognized for her excellence in driver education by her colleagues in SERA ADTSEA, receiving the Bishop-Seals and the Tom Love Award. Most recently, Ms. Suter was recognized for her excellence in teaching, receiving the Teacher of Excellence Award from the national driver education association ADTSEA. 

Ms. Suter remains active in retirement. Over the years, downhill skiing, ski racing, and curling have been prominent. She also ventured into the world of ice skating with lessons and qualifying as a Bronze Level skater. She is a 5-time individual Washington Ski International Champion and she and her husband, Steven, were Jeep King of the Mountain National Champion (team event). She loves to travel and see the world with Steven and good friends.