Archway Partnership funds Education Professional focused on Birth-through-Five issues

Beginning June 1, Katherine (Katy) Green will begin working as an Archway Education Professional who will focus on birth-to-five programs and activities in Dalton-Whitfield County.

As a means to workforce development, community leaders in Dalton-Whitfield County have committed to the goal of getting every student reading at grade level by the third grade. A number of College of Education initiatives, coordinated by the UGA Archway Partnership and the Office of School Engagement, are underway to help the community reach that goal. One of these initiatives emphasizes the role of early brain development and literacy, which has led to the creation of a new faculty position to assist in identifying and addressing community needs related to parent capacity and school readiness.

Earlier this spring, the community partnered with the COE and the Archway Partnership to fund an "Archway Education Professional" who will focus on birth-to-five programs and activities in Dalton-Whitfield County. This position is a public service faculty member with a joint appointment in the Archway Partnership and the Department of Communications and Special Education. Katherine (Katy) Green has been hired for this position and will be housed in the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce.

Green is a Ph.D. candidate in the Educational Psychology and Special Education department at Georgia State University (GSU). Her focus is on early childhood special education with a cognate in typical and atypical child development. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of West Georgia and a preschool handicap add-on certificate from GSU. In addition to her doctoral program, Green has served as a clinical instructor at GSU since 2009 in the Department of Early Childhood Education and the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. Prior to her work at GSU, she was a preschool special needs teacher and speech-language pathologist in the Paulding County School System. She also worked in the Carroll County and Catoosa County school systems as a speech- language communications assistant and elementary Spanish teacher. She begins her work with the Dalton- Whitfield Archway Partnership June 1.