Dr. Mary McDuffie: NCCAT Executive Director
Dr. Mary McDuffie serves as Executive Director for NCCAT, where her leadership and involvement have extended to all levels of public education. Dr. McDuffie has worked to use NCCAT’s leadership position to promote connections between educational theory and the actual practice of teaching. As an advocate of actively addressing the challenges of teacher retention and renewal, she’s helped NCCAT reshape the approach to these challenges.
Dr. McDuffie has spent her 35-year career as a lifelong teacher and educator, working in leadership positions at every level of education: as superintendent, principal, and high school history teacher. Along the way, she has received numerous awards including the North Carolina Principal of the Year award and leading awards from her alma maters (the Methodist College Medallion in 2003 and the Ralph Brimley Award from East Carolina University in 1996).
NCCAT has experienced tremendous growth in the past seven years under the guidance of Dr. McDuffie, serving more than 5,000 North Carolina teachers annually with the center’s innovative seminar offerings. Under her leadership, the NCCAT team shaped its highly successful support program for beginning teachers to strengthen the expertise of teachers in their first three years in the classroom while significantly improving their retention rates in the profession. She initiated the center’s empirical documentation program, which measures the center’s knowledge base in teacher retention and teaching excellence via controlled and applied research.
By providing consistent leadership to help North Carolina retain its best teachers, NCCAT has impacted tens of thousands of students in North Carolina's classrooms.