Champion Profile: Joan DavisJuly 30, 2007 |
Printer-friendly version |
 Joan Davis, Director of the Lawndale Elementary School’s First 5 LA-funded School Readiness Program, will be retiring next month after 11 years at Lawndale and a lifetime of service to children and families. She has been with the School Readiness Program since its inception in 2002. Joan wrote the First 5 LA grant while studying at the UCLA Anderson School of Business, Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in a management development program for early childhood educators. A student of nationally renowned child development expert Dr. Karen Hill Scott, she also participated in L.A. County’s universal preschool task force during the same period. A self-proclaimed "late bloomer", Joan began her college career at Northeastern Illinois University only after she and her husband raised their five children. During her summers as a student at NIU, Joan and her family lived in Guadalajara, Mexico where she attended an exchange program at the University of Guadalajara for more intensive studies in Spanish. She graduated from NIU in 1975 with a double major in Sociology and Spanish and a minor in Psychology. Joan went on to become a Spanish-English bilingual teacher in the Chicago and then Los Angeles school systems until she received her Masters in Education Administration from Cal State L.A. in 1989. She then held administrative posts in the Glendale, Culver City and San Ysidro School Districts before settling in Lawndale. In retirement Joan plans to spend more time with her husband Ralph, her five children – whose careers range from middle-school principal to Augustinian brother – and her seven grandchildren, whose homes span from Los Angeles to the Midwest, to Mexico. Happy trails Joan! Which book has influenced your life most and why? Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz because of his idea that self-image sets the boundaries of individuals accomplishments and defines what you can and cannot do. What is your favorite way to spend time with an important child or children in your life? I love to do creative activities with my grandson Eóin. Together we will draw a town with markers on a plastic shower curtain and he will drive his trucks around our community. Which living person do you admire most and why? Nelson Mandela, for his courage and determination Who was your favorite teacher and why? Dr. Angelina Pedroso, my Spanish teacher at NIU. She made sure every student was supported academically and emotionally. What is your motto? Si, se puede! Yes, you can! |
|
