Visionary Leadership: Past, Present, and Future

Dr. M. Elaine Franklin has been tapped to be the executive director of the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.

“Increasing teacher effectiveness is fundamental to improving public education in our state,” said Linda S. Suggs, chair of the NCCAT Board of Trustees. “Dr. Franklin is committed to delivering high-quality professional development programming for North Carolina’s educators, so they, in turn, can cultivate classrooms that are active, engaging, collaborative, experiential, and interdisciplinary.”

The NCCAT Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Franklin the new executive director. When Franklin took office on April 1, 2011, she became the fifth executive director of NCCAT since its creation in 1985.

“I feel truly honored to be selected as the next executive director of NCCAT,” Franklin said. “This institution is one of the reasons that North Carolina is nationally regarded as a state that values education. The visionary leaders who founded NCCAT more than 25 years ago recognized that great teaching is essential to high-quality education. They saw the center as a way to identify the best teachers and retain them in the profession through programs that provide intellectual stimulation and renew a love of learning.”