Valerie is a retired educator from Sunflower County with 30 years of classroom and administrative experience. Her first experience with SCFP was as a parent of a former Fellow. Today, Valerie serves as Site Director for the SCFP and leads the Leadership workshop, where she supports Fellows in developing their skills as leaders and organizers, and College Cohort, where she helps Fellows plan for the transition out of high school. Valerie has always believed that education is the means by which individuals can shape their existence and develop the necessary knowledge and skills to survive and to thrive in their current and future environments. Her most recent educational focus is to ensure that students are provided with the skills to get them to and through college. She is especially proud of the work she does with Fellows to develop their capacity to become leaders.  The Freedom Fighter who inspires her the most is Shirley Chisholm who stated:  "I'd like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts." Valerie’s goal is to develop in SCFP fellows “the guts” to stand up for that in which they believe and to not always submit to popular opinions.