Meet the Team

Debbie’s advocacy journey for public education started twenty years ago when her children walked through the doors of Carver Elementary in Florence, SC. Since then she has been honored to work with teachers, principals, superintendents, community leaders and now a Board of Directors that are all dedicated and invested in the success of students across our great state. SEL4SC is uniquely positioned to be the state-wide voice for social-emotional learning in South Carolina and she couldn’t be more thrilled to lead the organization.

After volunteering with The School Foundation in Florence, SC, Debbie began working with SC Future Minds in 2009, then a new organization created to serve as a “resource development office” for South Carolina’s public schools. Over her 11 years with SC Future Minds Debbie helped to convene over 4,000 education advocates and 800 teachers to celebrate public education, worked to provide critical home libraries to almost 6,000 students in low income schools, and helped gift over $3.8 million in-kind and cash donations directly to educators.

Debbie has served in a wide-array of leadership roles at local and state levels, including the SC PTA, School Improvement Council, YMCA Florence, and Emerging Leaders Florence. She is a graduate of the Nonprofit Leadership Institute at Francis Marion University, the South Carolina Education Policy Fellows Program and is a Riley Fellow. She currently sits on the board of First Steps of Florence, is on the TransformSC Steering Committee, the Sumter SEL Task Force and the Tri-County Cradle to Career Recovery Work Steering Committ