Suzy Koontz, Founder, Creator, and CEO of Math and Movement, has spent over 25 years helping students achieve academic success. Suzy has created over 200 kinesthetic teaching tools adopted by schools nationwide and authored over 20 books. As a national presenter and keynote speaker for schools and conferences, Suzy shares heartwarming stories of how movement can increase teacher and student self-confidence and transform the way students learn and retain knowledge. Suzy is the co-author of an upcoming ASCD book on active learning. She has presented nationally at ESEA, ASCD, NCTM, NCSM, and NSLA, and was filmed for the documentaries Can Movement-Based Learning Improve Math Mindset? and Summer Math: How Movement-Based Learning Enriches Summer Learning Programs. 

In April 2023, Suzy led a two-week, movement-based learning program at a Title I school in Sarasota, Florida. She engaged one classroom of low-performing, third-grade students in the Math & Movement movement-based learning activities and filmed the process for the documentary, Can Movement-Based Learning Shift Math Mindset? Students began the program with low self-confidence, behavior and attendance issues, negative attitudes towards math, and low math scores. The intervention led to an immense increase in positive attitudes towards math and a sizable increase in math knowledge. There was a positive change in the students’ math mindsets, a shift in the entire school’s perspective on the teaching and learning of mathematics, and a positive shift in the learning environment, one where students began to collaborate and support one another. 

In July 2024, Suzy filmed for the Summer Learning documentary in Johnsburg, NY. Suzy and her team have worked with schools in 46 states across the country. They have implemented movement-based learning programs in some of the largest school districts across the country, including San Francisco Unified School District, New York City School District, Rochester City School District, Katy Independent School District, and more. 

During 2020-2021, Suzy completed a series of 1st-5th-grade state-aligned curriculum books (Hop to Success) that support student success. Each book has 20 problems for each state standard. In order to further develop student fluency and problem-solving ability, Suzy created the Jump and Learn series and Multiplication and Division in the Real World. Additionally, Suzy and her team have created a kinesthetic teaching program that is researched-based and is aligned with state standards. She actively leads professional development workshops for teachers and administrators and school programs for students. Suzy’s vision is for movement and play-based learning to be incorporated during the school day, in after-school programming and in summer learning programs.

Suzy is the vice president and one of the founding board members of the National Math Foundation (NMF), a 501(c)3 whose mission is to foster exercise, healthy eating, and learning through movement as a means to develop a community of math-literate members. The NMF is collaborating with organizations across the country in math and literacy-focused research projects with the goal of better understanding the efficacy of movement and physical activity on developing math and reading fluency.

Suzy’s work has been featured on television, radio, and print.