Pat has been an educator and advocate for students for over 30 years, serving in roles ranging from teacher to administrator and in settings ranging from private-not-for profit and public schools to state departments of education in six states. She taught and counseled clients with disabilities in a vocational rehabilitation facility, serving ages 16-65, helping them achieve gainful employment through in-depth evaluation and training. Pat was recognized for her work through a promotion to a leadership position in that private setting and later gained state wide recognition for her work with students and adults with disabilities. From that experience she entered into the public sector as a high school guidance counselor in a large, rural high school in south-central Kentucky. While in that position, she organized a group called Stars and Stripes, which was a student against drugs initiative that also garnered statewide recognition from the Governor of Kentucky. Pat was named President of the Kentucky Counseling Association, and later was elected to serve her profession as the President of the entire Southeast region, serving several states. Through these state and regional office experiences she went on to be recognized by Kentucky as their School Counselor of the year.
Pat also served on two state wide task forces on high school restructuring. It was through that work that she garnered state recognition for her work in restructuring high schools which led an official position in the Kentucky Department of Education as Team Leader for High school Restructuring. In that position she led the work of changing statutes and state regulations pertaining to raising high school graduation requirements for all students in Kentucky. Pat was then promoted to a positon at the Kentucky Department of Education as Director of Leadership and School Improvement. It was in this position that she and her colleagues gave birth to a scholastic audit process that evaluated the states lowest performing schools and led to a classification of performance and subsequent sanctions. Her work there catapulted her in to the national spotlight as she led the process for six other state departments of education, serving as a private consultant for them. Pat also oversaw the Highly Skilled Educator program and the Kentucky Leadership Academy, while serving as in the state director positon for seven years.
After much success at the state level Pat had a yearning to return to public schools and students, and so she left after 10 years of service with the state, to become a school superintendent in the western part of Kentucky. There she was able to take an academically struggling district and its schools from a “Needs Improvement” status to a state designation of proficiency in the eight years in which she served. During her tenure there Pat also brought them from a financial crisis status to a stable financial situation which enabled her to construct two new schools and leave reserves to enable her district to build a yet a third one after she was gone. She was nominated for the Kentucky School Board Association’s Superintendent of the Year by her school board education during her last year of her superintendency.
Pat holds a BS degree and a MA degree in Education from the Morehead State University. She holds a second MA degree from the University of Georgia in Rehabilitation Counseling. She attended Auburn University for a short course in Vocational Evaluation. Pat obtained her certifications for the principalship, instructional supervision, and superintendent at Eastern Kentucky University.
Most recently Pat has worked as an executive coach for new superintendents, conducted certified evaluation training for new administrators, served on the Kentucky Leadership Academy design team, and mentored aspiring principals in Kentucky.