ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA) actively seeks to attract, recruit and retain educators to the teaching profession in South Carolina with guidance provided from its Board of Directors.  

Following recent elections, 12 seats have been filled by education advocates from both public and private sectors including institutions of higher learning, secondary-level education, statewide teaching organizations and two members the South Carolina General Assembly.

Dr. Charles Love, dean of the college of education at USC Upstate; Dr. Tina Marshall-Bradley, professor at Claflin University; Martha Shaleuly, campus director of Teaching Fellows at Furman University; and Jane Turner, an attorney with Duff, White, Turner, LLC, were reelected and begin their second term with CERRA.

Love served as chair for the past three years but will step down as he begins his new term.

Deborah Minnick, a science and Teacher Cadet instructor at Saluda High School, has previously served on the CERRA Advisory and joins seven other first-time members to the Board this summer. Minnick entered the teaching profession though South Carolina’s Program for Alternative Certification for Educators (PACE) and is joined by Virginia Brown Bartels, a two-time Teacher in Residence with CERRA and co-author of the PACE curriculum. Bartels has trained Teacher Cadet instructors for nearly 20 years and has led the program at Wando High School for the past 13 years. Margaret “Reggie” Matheny, a classroom teacher for 22 years before spending the past 10 years as an assistant principal of Barnwell Primary School, is an adjunct professor at USC Salkahatchie.

Kahthy Maness of the Palmetto State Teachers Association, Jim Turner with the State Department of Education, and Maria Taylor with the South Carolina School Improvement Council are all state-level members of the board. Also, recently agreeing to serve on the Board of Directors are Rep. B.R. Skelton (R-District 3) and Sen. Gerald Malloy (D-District 29).

The new members join the 30-member board as each member, old and new, work to change the image of teaching in South Carolina while recruiting, retaining and advancing teachers to the state.