Katrina Mitchell                                                                                  Senior Director, Education (0-21)

Native New Yorker Katrina D. Mitchell brings a wide variety of personal and professional experienced to her role as Senior Director of Smart Start, the Early Childhood Division of United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. There, she is primarily responsible for providing leadership and oversight of federally funded early literacy initiatives. Her past professional experience includes work with Literacy, Inc. and the National Urban League.

With a passion for touching the lives of the children—as a godparent, a mentor and a role model—Katrina also lends her dedication to an advisory role on the Children’s Defense Fund’s Freedom School Curriculum Committee. She holds a BA in English from Wellesley College, and received a MEd from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education with a focus on Language&Literacy and Arts in Education.

Carol Crumby
Senior Director, Education (0-21)

Carol understands the important role that residents, civic and business leaders play in the development of healthy communities.  She has an extensive background in community building, community/organization development and administration with over thirty years of service in for-profit and non-profit organizations, government and education systems. Carol holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Cheyney State College and Masters in Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. 

Currently, Carol serves as a Senior Director, Education in the Community Engagement Department of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.  She is responsible for oversight of the Education Community Investment Process, a portfolio of over seven million dollars and a hundred programs.  Additionally, she manages the “On time High School Graduation” area of the Education Insulated Pipeline working closely with the “Middle School Transition” and the “College/Advanced Training” components.

Carol recently served as Area Director of United Way in DeKalb County, a division of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta from March1998 through March 2011.  Her primary role was to ensure the successful achievement of community targets and campaign goals.  Carol has served as Chair of the Board of Commissioners for the Housing Authority of DeKalb County, the Georgia Perimeter College Citizen’s Advisory Council/Decatur Campus, and the Board of Director’s for the League of Women Voters in DeKalb County, in addition to numerous other community and professional organization’s boards and committees.  She is also a member of Leadership DeKalb, Class of 2000 and Leadership Pittsburgh, Class of 1993.  Hailing from Pittsburgh, she resided in the Atlanta Metro area for nearly sixteen years.

Charmaine Godley
Director, Training & Technical Assistance

Charmaine Godley currently serves as the Director for Get Ready to Read! Southeast Regional Center. With more than 20 years of experience in education that encompasses infant through adult learners, Charmaine also established the Early Childhood Care and Education program for Griffin Technical College, where she continues to serve as an adjunct instructor.  Ms. Godley received her B.S. Degree in Family and Consumer Sciences Education, with a Minor in Child Development from La Sierra University in Riverside, California; and a Masters Degree in Educational Administration and Supervision from Georgia State University. She is also a graduate of the WestEd PITC - Program for Infant / Toddler Care, a collaboration between WestEd and the California Dept of Education.

Hollie Pavloff
Director, Substitute Teacher Program

Hollie Pavloff, Director of the Early Education Substitute Teacher Program, is a long time resident of metro Atlanta. She holds a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Early Childhood Education from the University of Miami, and a M.Ed. from Georgia State University. Hollie blends a background in sales, marketing, training and management experience at Coca-Cola USA with a distinguished 11-year career in the early childhood education field. Now, she focuses her energy and considerable passion toward her work with Smart Start--educating adults to provide nurturing and quality educational experiences for children birth through age five.

Andrea Irvin
Director, Partners Advancing Childhood Education (PACE)

Andrea Irvin, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, serves as Project Manager of the Partners Advancing Childhood Education (PACE) Initiative -- recently transitioning from her previous role as Project Coordinator.  Andrea received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Spelman College with a minor in Management and Organization. She started working with Smart Start over 2 years ago with the Early Education Substitute Teacher Program and prior to that as Director of the Austin Elementary School after-school program through the Cowart Family / Ashford Dunwoody YMCA. 

Laura Miller
Director, Partners Advancing Childhood Education (PACE)

Laura Miller has worked over six years in educational programming, administration and outreach.  Prior to joining Smart Start, she served as Education Manager at Georgia Public Broadcasting, wherein she managed educational programs for parents and caregivers of school-age children.  Laura holds a BA degree in English from Spelman College and a M.A. in English Education from Clark Atlanta University.

Kimberley Hyler 
Project Manager, PACE

Kimberley Hyler recently relocated to Georgia from Milwaukee, WI. She has six years of early childhood teaching experience. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Educational Studies with an emphasis in Day Care from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and a Master’s degree in Reading and Literacy from Walden University.

Kysa Daniels
Project Manager, PACE

Kysa Daniels, a native Texan, has worked for United Way since 2007.  She started with the organization as a loaned executive and now serves as a program manager for the Partners Advancing Childhood Education (PACE) initiative. Previously, Kysa worked in the mass media as a print and broadcast journalist.  She has experience as a CNN anchor / writer and freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  Kysa earned a Mass Communications Master’s Degree from Eastern New Mexico University and a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from Texas A&M University.  She is married to professional musician and college instructor Derwin Daniels.  They have three sons, ages 17 to 7.

Paige Edeburn
Project Manager, PACE

Paige Edeburn first joined United Way as a loaned executive in 2008 leading the Coweta County annual campaign.  In 2009 she began work with UW’s Education Team as a project manager for the Partner’s Advancing Childhood Education (PACE) initiative.  Her prior experience includes a thirteen year career in national and international corporate and real estate finance.  Paige left the finance world to work with, lead and then form not for profit entities engaged in work on a variety of issues from education to community redevelopment.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the College of William and Mary.

Jilo Tisdale 
Director, Youth Avoid Risky Behaviors (YARB)

Jilo was born in Detroit, Michigan and holds degrees in Comparative Literature from Northwestern University (B.A.) and Early Childhood Education from The University of Michigan (M.Ed.). She has 15 years of experience in education which includes working with families in birth to three-year-olds through the Parents as Teachers program, classroom teaching in grades pre-k through eight and administration and instruction in high school and university settings.  Prior to coming to Smart Start Jilo was the manager of education programs for the Atlanta office of the national non-profit organization, Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.


ERF STAFF BIOS:
 
Sakinah Patton
Early Reading First Project Director, APPLE

Sakinah Patton was born in Atlanta, Georgia.  She holds degrees from the University of Dayton in Early Childhood Education (B.A.) and Case Western Reserve University in Nonprofit Management (MBA/MNO). Some of her past work experience includes teaching, serving as an Assistant Principal and working as a consultant for The New Teacher Project.

Elizabeth Clarkson 
Project Manager, Grade Level Reading

Elizabeth Clarkson recently relocated from Boulder, Colorado.  She has 5 years of classroom teaching experience in preschool and pre-K in both public and private schools and has also directed a small program focused on health and well-being in young children.  She received her Bachelor’s degree in Birth-Kindergarten Education from Appalachian State University in NC and her Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Colorado.

Emily Gilead
Early Reading First Literacy Coach, APPLE

Emily Gilead, has been an Early Literacy Coach with READERS for nearly ten years, and has worked in the field of early childhood education assisting teachers with furthering their education, program accreditation, and literacy for her entire career. She earned her undergraduate degree from Mercer University, and is currently seeking her Master’s in Education from Concordia University.

Tanya Wallace
Early Reading First Literacy Coach, APPLE

Tanya has more than fifteen years of experience in the areas of early childhood education, special education, and children’s programming/design. She holds degrees or certificates in Child Studies, Special Education, and Speech-Language Pathology&Audiology from Old Dominion University and Georgia State University.

Norise Greene
Early Reading First Literacy Coach, APPLE

Norise graduated from Clark Atlanta University in 1997 with an M.A. in Early Childhood Education.  Since then she has taught in various school environments:  Head Start, private Christian schools, Clayton County Public Schools, and Department of Defense Dependent Schools.  Her teaching experience ranges from Pre-school to 2nd grade including a 1st / 2nd grade combination class and a Kindergarten / 1st grade combination class; Language Arts and Reading was always a strong part of the classroom instruction.  Norise enjoys working with young children in acquiring adequate literacy skills and fostering a sense of enthusiasm for reading.

Helen McCroskey
Director of Coaching, Early Reading First

Helen McCroskey is a native of Tennessee, and has worked in the field of early education for the last 26 years, serving in a variety of capacities including teacher, director, consultant and as an adjunct college professor. She has degrees and certifications in Human Services Management, Early Childhood Education, and a M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts in Boston, MA.

Angelle Cooper 
Professional Development Manager, Early Reading First

Angelle was an educational consultant prior to joining Smart Start. She brings more than twenty years of experience in program management&professional development to the organization, having worked with various non-profit agencies throughout the metro Atlanta area, including Cool Girls,Inc., SciTrek, and Zoo Atlanta. She holds a B.A. in English from Spelman College and a M.S. in Environmental Communications from the University of Michigan. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas.