Statement of Qualifications
As a graduate of Jenks High School in Jenks,
Oklahoma, I began college at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, as my father was in the faculty of Internal Medicine at
Oral Roberts Medical School. When my family moved back to
Mississippi, I returned with them and completed my Bachelor Degree
and one Masters Degree in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, at the
University of Southern Mississippi. Upon graduation with a
bachelor’s degree, I opened a retail business in Jackson,
Mississippi, which I owned and operated for six years. Although I
tried to ignore it for several years, education is in my blood.
Consequently, I entered the field of education. I have
several graduate degrees including a Doctorate in Educational
Administration. My administrative assignments have prepared me to
lead in a fair and equitable manner. As an educational leader, I
have served as Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Velma
Jackson Magnet High School in Madison County, Mississippi, and as
Principal at Lakeside School-Mississippi State Hospital and Forest
High School in Forest, Mississippi. My experience includes two years
of administrative service at the higher education board office with
the GEAR UP MS program.
The opportunities to participate in the crafting and
implementation of a high school funded through the USDE Magnet
Schools Assistance Program as well as the state-wide GEAR UP MS
program offered me unlimited opportunities to collaborate with
local, state, and national educational leaders. All of these
opportunities have demanded a high degree of skill in building
consensus among often extremely diverse stakeholders, in designing
creative solutions for instruction within the parameters of policy
and procedure, and in strategic planning for programs that are
focused and evaluated on student outcomes.
During these administrative appointments, I served
simultaneously as adjunct faculty in the Department of Psychology at
Hinds Community College, teaching Introduction to Psychology and
Child Psychology for seven years and for a maximum of twelve hours
in some semesters. I have served this summer as an adjunct in the
Department of Educational Administration teaching program evaluation
to the doctoral students. I understand the opportunities that are
related to post-secondary education; I also understand the
challenges of the post-secondary institutions that come from
students who leave high school with limited academic skills—such
issues that directly impact the financial and retention issues of
these institutions.
My experience at the Mississippi Institutions of Higher
Learning as the Program Coordinator for GEAR UP Mississippi provided
me the responsibilities of communicating, facilitating, and leading
an effort that includes 32 public school superintendents, 56
secondary principals, approximately 450 teachers and ultimately over
7000 students across the state of Mississippi. I also had roles of
peer leadership with the personnel of the Mississippi Department of
Education, the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges, our
IHE’s and the other agencies, foundations, and corporate sponsors of
the program. The position allowed me to develop additional skills
related to facilitative leadership in considering options and
determining priorities for educational programming.
My experiences at Velma Jackson Magnet High School and at
GEAR UP MS were steeped in the reporting, integrity, and
accountability related to the programmatic as well as fiscal
responsibilities that are demanded with such grants from the USDE. I
served successfully as writer, coordinator, and liaison with
Washington in much of the implementation of these grants. The
highlight of this program involved the cross-curricular infusion of
a multi-cultural world studies curriculum which was achieved through
consistent and intensive horizontal and vertical team planning. I
believe that I am well able to maintain the focus and to lead in the
development of a strong system of academic programming that provides
equity and adequacy to a diverse group of students.
My time as Assistant Superintendent for Learning Services in
Pulaski County was a time of rebuilding as the district struggled to
overcome challenges from twenty-two years of the longest running
desegregation case in the country, an administrative power struggle
with the teachers’ union, and a changing demographic that has gone
largely unaddressed. The combination of these factors left the
district with twelve of the thirteen secondary schools and a number
of elementary schools in school improvement.
During my service as Assistant Superintendent in Pulaski
County, Arkansas, I forged a strong mutually respectful relationship
with the teacher’s union while offering instructional leadership to
the building and district administrators. I also led a series of
town meetings in each of the feeder attendance zones in an effort to
regain the participation and trust of the communities. We built,
staffed, and opened a new middle school while leading the planning
committee in the development of programming and conceptual facility
designs for a new elementary school.
In Tulsa I served for four years as an examiner for the
Oklahoma Quality Award Foundation, an organization that endorses the
Baldrige model of continuous improvement. As Director of Staff
Development and Leadership Training, I led in the development of
training that aligned our site improvement plans to the District
Strategic Plan in accordance with the Baldrige model. The successes
that I had in leading outcome-focused change were significantly
supported by my collaborative and team-oriented leadership style. As
Assistant Superintendent of School Innovations, I led a task force
of approximately 125 stakeholders organized in a half dozen task
teams to study the effectiveness of our schools with a focus on
educational alternatives. Through my open and effective
communication skills, the teams produced a comprehensive and
research-based plan for reinventing our schools with a focus on
individual student needs. We developed a plan of deployment through
a five-year scaffolding of interventions to maintain fiscal
integrity and a strategic development of personnel. Job descriptions
of instructional staff were modified to reflect goals of
relationship, relevance, rigor, readiness, and responsibility
through best practices at each developmental level.
Due to economic developments in 2010, the Assistant
Superintendent position was one of about 175 administrative and 200
teacher positions that were eliminated, my contract was renewed, and
I was assigned to a principal position at an alternative high
school. Due to philosophical, ethical, and moral differences in
expectations for dealing with student behavior, I resigned October
21, 2010, and have been working independently as consultant,
speaker, and writer since that time.
My service in the public education system demonstrates a
track record for successfully leading change that has resulted in
improved academic performance through data-driven and
student-centered strategies. Frequently, this service has been in
schools that have traditionally lacked a positive academic program
for all students—a delineation that was often relative to racial and
socioeconomic parameters. I have been able to lead the learning
communities beyond such parameters into paradigm shifts that have
involved data-driven decisions to successfully serve all of the
students in the schools.
I have enjoyed similar success with peers. I was honored by
my peers at Jackson State University by being elected as the
President of the Doctoral Student Association for the 2002-2003
school year and as Vice President of Programs for Phi Delta Kappa
for 2003-2004. I was recently elected president of Phi Delta Kappa
for this year. I was also invited to serve on the Advisory Board of
the Leadership Redesign Team for the Jackson State University
Graduate Program for Education Administration as well as the
Advisory Committee for Graduate Degrees in Secondary Education at
JSU.
It has been said that ‘a man’s attitude writes the script of
his life.’ I have an extensive and diverse resume of experience that
provides me with an understanding of all levels of education
especially in the area of curriculum and instruction. Therefore, I
am confident that I have the training, skills, and potential to
successfully and effectively lead a twenty-first century school
district with a community-driven vision and skills that produce high
levels of student success.