Since my time in Career and Technical Education began, I have been exposed to the many challenges facing West Alabama industry. In working with the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce and the Region III Workforce Development Council, I’ve observed and learned the viewpoint of industry leaders and the impact career and technical education has within every business sector of the Region III Workforce. With the high demand for employees from auto-manufacturing giants such as MBUSI and its supplier companies such as Brose, the Tuscaloosa County School System envisioned the importance of developing a close-working relationship with West Alabama industry thus leading to the development of the Brookwood Career and Technical School Annex located at the old Brookwood High School site. Programs including Culinary Arts, Health Science, Logistics, Modern Manufacturing, and Travel and Tourism will be housed at our new center. I am extremely excited to return to Brookwood as the first administrator within our new facility and I look forward to serving along side our impeccable teaching staff preparing our students to enter the Alabama workforce.

As the principal of Matthews Elementary School, I gained a vast knowledge of the elementary curriculum and best practices and strategies within Title I schools. During my time at Matthews, I was exposed and humbled by the many challenges facing low-income minority-driven public schools. The Matthews Elementary School teaching staff as well as all teachers within these types of school settings are the true super heroes within public education. I can honestly say that I learned more from my time at Matthews Elementary than all of my other educational experiences combined.

I served as the assistant principal and interim principal at Brookwood Middle School. My duties included community and stakeholder engagement, curriculum development and strategies for best practice, student discipline, facility management, staff recruitment and development and technology enhancement. I crafted a Science-in-Action service-learning grant; and, with in-kind donations from MBUSI and McAbee Construction, we constructed a state-of-the-art educational greenhouse through which special-need students developed and practiced work skills to achieve AAA standards. By far, this is my most self-fulfilling accomplishment as an educator.

I was the first Tuscaloosa County school administrator to travel to China in a teacher/administrator exchange program (Confucius Institute/HABAN). There I worked with American and Chinese educators and government officials to create a globalized educational curriculum. As an Honorary Fulbright Scholar, I traveled to Japan with other American administrators. We worked with Japanese educators and government officials to develop a curriculum and best practices for food and water sustainability (Japanese Mobius for Sustainability) with a heavy emphasis on oyster and scallop cultivation as well as the destruction of forests/trees by the Japanese pine-beetle. I co-presented an analysis of both American service-learning and the Japanese Möbius for Sustainability at the International Association for Research in Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) convention and worked to publish an article within its journal.

My time at Brookwood Middle School has been my most favorite time as an educator and I consider Brookwood to be my home.