Women to Watch Finalists – Education Category
(left to right) Erika Huddle, Jennifer O’Keefe, Julie-Ann Scott-Pollock, Jen Adler, Brookes Musser
Jen Adler, Associate Director of the CARE Violence Prevention & Response Program at UNCW
For twenty years, Jen Adler has worked in a field known as interpersonal, an area that covers prevention and response to domestic violence, dating, relationship, or sexual violence.
It means often helping people when they’re at their most vulnerable.
“In the beginning, I just sort of coincidentally ended up at an internship at Planned Parenthood (while in high school). That was the first time I’d been in a female empowerment setting, inspired by women, strong professionals helping others in a global sense,” says Adler, associate director of the CARE Violence Prevention & Response Program at University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Later when she worked in domestic violence prevention and response, she said she was able to bring that sense of empowerment to those who had been hurt and needed to be built up as part of their healing process.
“She stands alongside clients finding their way out of the darkest woods,” says Rebecca Caldwell, director of Substance Abuse & Violence Prevention at UNCW, who started CARE
in 2005.
Adler previously worked as the counseling coordinator and volunteer coordinator at the YWCA of Silicon Valley Rape Crisis Center for a decade and has other experience in the field.
At UNCW, where she has held the associate director post since 2010, she has doubled the size of her staff and supervisors. In her role, she trains CARE peer educators and other professionals in the field and does counseling and advocacy with those who have experienced sexual assault, relationship abuse, stalking, and harassment.
Adler has been an expert trainer for the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women – she also recently reviewed grant proposals from technical assistance providers for the agency – and sits on the New Hanover County Sexual Assault Response Team and its violence prevention task force as well as the Domestic Violence Advocacy Council.
“At some point,” she says about her future, “I’d like to work on a state or even national coalition, offering support to others who are doing the more hands-on-work.”
Erika Huddle, Co-Owner of Exceptional Educators/Educator
Last year, Erika Huddle and her business partner started Exceptional Educators, which works with children through therapy and educational services in one spot.
Huddle previously worked at Wrightsboro Elementary School as a special education teacher. It was after serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa, and receiving a scholarship, that she thought she would pursue development psychology. But she then soon found she had an interest in special education with a focus on atypical development.
“What I thought would be a stepping stone ended up being my full career,” says Huddle, once named an Elementary Educator of the Year by New Hanover County Schools.
Through Exceptional Educators, she can work with children who need intensive support.
“They might not be doing any school outside of the home due to developmental or emotional” needs, she says of some of the children.
Her interactions with them can involve tutoring remediation and social skills training as well as work in a group setting.
This summer, Exceptional Educators started a scholarship fund, through donations, for Open Doors Camp summer camp for children with autism.The team also holds free workshops for parents on topics such as Individualized Education Program advocacy training.
“We really try to make sure we’re constantly providing access to quality services for everyone,” Huddle says.
Almost all of Exceptional Educators’ clients come through direct referrals.
“I love that I am able to spend my day doing something that we’ve created that we believe in,” Huddle says. “I’m never bummed about going to work.”
Brookes Musser, Co-Owner of Exceptional Educators/Clinical Social Worker
Brookes Musser and Erika Huddle (see above profile) met while working in the New Hanover County school system.
They decided to go into business together and take on Exceptional Educators, which existed before they became co-owners.
“We just saw how much of a need there was to consolidate all of these services so families didn’t get overwhelmed,” says Musser, a licensed clinical social worker and former school social worker for Wrightsboro Elmentary School.
Musser’s undergraduate studies were in criminal justice and psychology – she wanted to be a criminal profiler. But she ultimately decided to focus on earlier in life and work with kids.
At Exceptional Educators, she oversees mental health services and collaborates on services for the children while also providing intensive individual therapy. She focuses on play therapy and a trauma-based therapy called EMDR.
“Brookes is one of the only therapists for children in Wilmington who chooses to accept Medicaid,” says her nominator. “Because of this decision, she is able to provide therapeutic and mental health services to children who would have otherwise have not had the opportunity to receive such services.”
The company has eight tutors and five staff members. They would like to grow the mental health side with a psychologist and additional play therapist as well as a speech language therapist.
“I really want people to see us as an education center for our parents as well,” Musser says.
Jennifer O’Keefe, Environmental Education Coordinator for New Hanover County Parks and Gardens
Imagine 73monarch butterfly caterpillars gnawing on milkweed in containers scattered about your family room.
That’s how committed Jennifer O’Keefe is to teaching kids – and adults – about their environment.
The caterpillars temporarily took roost at home when there was a shortage of milkweed for the butterfly house at Airlie Gardens, where O’Keefe is based.
“We lead field trips for a variety of ages, pre-K to eighth grade,” O’Keefe says about the activities. Those range from habitat walks for younger naturalists to hosting field trips about water quality for the older students. There’s also education activities for adults such as monthly bird hikes and butterfly releases.
O’Keefe has been involved with environmental groups since moving to Wilmington in 2000. She served as executive director of Cape Fear River Watch and executive director of Keep America Beautiful, New Hanover County.
“I think I’ve always loved to be outside, and I really like showing people different things in nature – flowers and trees and rocks and birds,” O’Keefe says. “If you walk, things are constantly changing. There’s always something to learn.”
Julie-Ann Scott-Pollock, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at UNCW
Julie-Ann Scott-Pollock focuses on social justice and empathy for others, all though telling people’s stories.
An associate professor of communication studies at University of North Carolina Wilmington, Scott-Pollock describes her area of work as performance studies, performance ethnography, and personal narrative. Through that, she explores topics such as identity and difference as well as disability studies.
“My research works to remove stigma and fear of illness through listening to, interpreting, and sharing common themes across multiple experiences in written and visual forms,” she says.
Her most recent project addresses the stigma of aging and the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease and memory loss. The film, Memories that Matter, stemmed from a long-term project of Scott-Pollock, who traveled around the country and interviewed older people about their memories. It became a top selection for the National Communication Association Film Festival in Las Vegas this month.
Her research and performance work have received six awards from the National Communication Association, and she serves as editor of Disability Studies Quarterly as well as on the editorial board for several other journals.
She recently received the UNCW Distinguished Scholarly Engagement and Public Service Award and next year will be one of 20 performance studies academics at a national summit to discuss the direction of their field as an academic discipline.
To view more of photographer Chris Brehmer’s work, go to www.chrisbrehmerphotography.com
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To view more of photographer Erik Maasch’s work, go to websta.me/n/emaasch
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