DoDEA

PEACHTREE CITY, GA — July 8, 2010 — Dr. Linda Curtis, Area Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment for the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS) and Department of Defense Dependents Schools, Cuba, (DoDDS-Cuba) announced today that Ms. Gladys Blount has been named principal of Galer Elementary School, at Beaufort, in the South Carolina/Fort Stewart/DoDDS-Cuba District.

Blount most recently served for three years as the Assistant Principal at Okinawa’s Kadena Middle School. She began her DoDEA career in 1990 in Panama as an educational prescriptionist. From 1995 to 1997, she taught learning impaired students in a Clarksville, Tenn., public elementary school and attended graduate school. She returned to Panama in 1997 and resumed her DoDEA career, teaching and serving as the Special Education (SPED) coordinator for Panama and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 1999, she went to Okinawa and taught kindergarten at Bechtel Elementary until 2005. She was the SPED coordinator for the Okinawa District for two years.

“We are excited to have Ms. Gladys Blount to join our district. Her experiences as an administrator and her experiences in special education will be invaluable to both the Galer staff and the South Carolina/Fort Stewart/DoDDS-Cuba District,” said Dr. Samantha Ingram, the District Superintendent. “As a former student of DoDEA, she can clearly relate to the sacrifices our military families make on a day to day basis.”

As the daughter of military parents, Blount attended several DoDEA schools. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Education and a Master’s of Education from the College of Educational Leadership and Counseling, from the University of Texas at El Paso. She served two terms as the co-chair of the DoDEA National Advisory Panel on the Education of Dependents with Disabilities from 2000-2002. She also served a term on the DoDEA HQ National Advisory Panel Subcommittee for the Special Education Initiative in 2002. Blount has one son, Gregory.