Rice

Gilbert

Flowers-Gibson

Last week, candidates for a pilot program known as the Louisiana Leader Fellows Program, returned to the University of Louisiana at Monroe to fulfill the one-year contract on their journey to becoming the next great leaders of Louisiana’s schools.

ULM was named the state's premier provider for the new initiative that has trained these talented teachers, specifically from high-poverty areas, to become qualified administrators who will soon lead school districts across Louisiana. ULM's College of Education and Human Development earned the top spot among four other Louisiana universities that applied to direct the program.

Advances in school leadership are high on education policy agendas as states across the nation strive to reform education systems and improve student results.

The Louisiana Leader Fellows Program – with grant funding from the Wallace Foundation and the state – has produced these new leaders who are prepared to address higher academic achievement, elimination of the achievement gap, and the preparation of students to be effective citizens in a global marketplace in their respective districts, according to Dr. George Rice, professor and director of ULM's Louisiana Leader Fellows Program.

The program began July 1, 2008, and comes to conclusion at the end of this month, under the direction of Professors Rice, Dr. Rochelle Gilbert and Dr. Beverly Flowers-Gibson.

“The Louisiana Leaders Fellows program has been a wonderful opportunity for peer collaboration; it has stimulated pedagogical change in educational leadership for the educators involved,” said Gilbert.

“Louisiana Leaders Fellows has helped the participants to build capacity as future leaders for our state, broadening their experiences in every arena of educational leadership development,” she concluded.

The fellows, and the parish or city school districts they will lead, are as follows:

• Terri Jackson, Livingston Parish
• Gwendolyn Pullard and Saberly O'Quain, Calcasieu Parish
• Marquette Marshall and Paul Roberts, City of Monroe
• Lucretia Causey and Lindsay Perkins, Jefferson Parish
• Jornea Erwin, Melissa Tracy, Julia Johns and Victoria Preau, St. Charles Parish

Photos by Richard Lupo, University Photo Services