For immediate release, May 27 2009

ROCK HILL, SC — The Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA) recently added 10 teachers to the CERRA Advisory Board, also referred to as “CAB.” The 35-member advisory board representing a cross-section of members in CERRA’s network of educators provides a teacher voice to the vision and direction of the organization.

Educators selected to serve represent the diverse membership and perspectives of CERRA and ensure a diverse leadership of the advisory board. Each member is charged to demonstrate individual and team commitment by providing leadership of the organization through presentations, writing and mentoring across the state.

“The teachers on CERRA’s Advisory Board are our heart. They come from all regions of the state, a variety of school sizes, and a diverse background,” said CERRA said executive director Gayle Sawyer. “They pump the life of their classrooms into the planning and goals of CERRA. Our CAB members are accomplished educators, teacher leaders, and advocates for teachers and students. CERRA is grateful to them for their commitment and energy.”

As part of his one-year residency at CERRA, 2010 South Carolina Teacher of the Year Bryan Coburn, a pre-engineering, computer programming and business teacher at Northwestern High School in York School District Three, will lead the group of accomplished educators for the upcoming school year.

The following members will serve on the CERRA Advisory Board until June 2012:

• Michael Leon Allen, Beaufort County School District
  Allen is the Beaufort County District Teacher of the Year. He is actively involved in FRC Robotics and currently teaches science in grades 10-12.
   
• Polly Atkinson, Chesterfield County School District
  Atkinson is a National Board Certified teacher and participated in the Teacher Cadet Program while in high school. She is the District Teacher of the Year in Chesterfield County School District. 
   
• Robin Bracken, Anderson School District 5
  Bracken is a National Board Certified teacher and an alumna of the South Carolina Teaching Fellows Program. She is her school’s representative for Anderson School District Five’s Institute of Teacher Leadership, which is an institute is designed to enhance the leadership and strengthen its core of teacher leaders by further developing them for service in the classroom and in the community.
   
• Jean Bishop Burden, Horry County School District
  Burden is the Horry County School District Teacher of the Year and has participated in CERRA’s Teacher Forum. She says those experiences have been valuable, but is most proud of her son’s involvement with the Teacher Cadet Program at Conway High School. There, she says, her son has found his calling to become a high school teacher, for which she is truly thankful.
   
• Marc Franklin Camp, Cherokee School District
  Camp is a National Board Certified and was the Cherokee County District Teacher of the Year in 2008. He is a nominee for State Physical Educator of the Year, an award given by the South Carolina Association of Physical Education and Sport.
   
• Jennifer “Paige” Derrick, Newberry College Teaching Fellow graduate
  Derrick is a May 2009 graduate of Newberry College where she was heavily involved in the South Carolina Teaching Fellows Program. Additionally, she served as vice-president of the college’s Future Educators Association chapter and is the outgoing President of the Psi Lambda Chapter of the Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) International Honor Society in Education. She was a Teacher Cadet at Mid-Carolina High School..
   
• Dr. Ginger Lewis-Jacobs, Horry County School District
  Lewis-Jacobs is a former Teacher Cadet and was named her school’s Teacher of the Year in 2005-2006. She is a member of several state and national organizations and is a mentor to induction and new teachers to Horry County and student teacher candidates of Coastal Carolina University.
   
• Meike McDonald, Charleston County School District
  McDonald has been involved with CERRA since 2000 when she was awarded one of the state’s first South Carolina Teaching Fellowships. She now teaches the Teacher Cadet Program at Septima Clark Corporate Academy where she is finishing her fourth year. She begins her second term on CERRA’s Advisory Board and says her past experience has made her realize the need to advocate for teachers, encouraging them to become more active politically.
   
• Cynthia Anderson Price, Greenwood School District 52
  Price is a former District Teacher of the Year from Greenwood School District 52. The 23-year veteran educator has been trained by CERRA to effectively mentor beginning teachers. She serves as her school’s literacy team leader as part of the Edgewood Middle School’s Making Middle Grades Work team.
   
• Courtney Hughes Randle, Richland School District 2  
  Randle is the District Teacher of the Year for Richland School District Two. She has volunteered her time as a representative on the “Goodbye Minimally Adequate” steering committee, and in February she single-handedly contributed more than 6,000 signatures to the petition that seeks to change education in South Carolina.

# # # 

________________________________________________________________________

About the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, & Advancement:
CERRA, an independent state agency located on the campus of Winthrop University, is the oldest and most established teacher recruitment program in the country. The purpose of CERRA is to provide leadership in identifying, attracting, placing and retaining well-qualified individuals for the teaching profession in South Carolina. CERRA is a national model and its programs have been adopted at school, district and state levels in more than 30 states in the United States.