CULLOWHEE (April 6, 2016)—Sue Nations and Kathy Wong bring respected education leadership backgrounds to new roles at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, a recognized national leader in professional development.
Nations, a former superintendent of Jackson County Schools, will be serving as the NCCAT director of programming and Wong, former director of human resources at Western Carolina University, will take on the role of human resources manager. They join the leadership transition process under Executive Director M. Brock Womble at NCCAT, which is best known for teachers who learn by doing and work collaboratively to discover education insights—through residential, online and school based-experiences.
“We’re excited to have two people with all the skills, the wealth of knowledge and experience Sue and Kathy have to help us make sure NCCAT continues to provide high-quality professional development for educators across North Carolina,” said Womble.
As the director of programming for NCCAT, Nations will meet with North Carolina superintendents, curriculum program directors and work with faculty to build NCCAT’s professional development calendar with program offerings relevant to the needs of the school districts.
“Educators today face an exciting and challenging future,” Nations said. “I am eager to work with our staff as we provide relevant professional development opportunities for our K–12 districts. The work of teachers is so important; I am pleased to be a part of their professional growth. Our new director, Dr. Womble has a powerful vision for NCCAT’s involvement with school districts.”
Nations, a Jackson County native, served the school system for 37 years. In 1974, she joined the National Teacher Corps and began her career in education as a fourth-grade teacher at Fairview Elementary School in Jackson County. She continued her own education at Western Carolina University and earned a master’s degree, educational specialist degree and a master’s degree in administration.
In 1988, Nations was named assistant principal of Smoky Mountain High School. Nations returned to Fairview in 1994 as principal, a post she kept until 2003 when she went to the Jackson County central office as assistant superintendent. In February 2004 the Jackson County Board of Education named her superintendent and she held that position until her retirement in 2011.
Wong served as the director of human resources for 20 years at Western Carolina University, including being a member of the 2020 Commission for strategic planning. Prior to coming to WCU, she worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as the benefits manager for two years and as a classification and compensation analysts for two years. She also worked in state government for eight years. Wong’s husband Henry was an NCCAT faculty member, who designed professional development programs for public school teachers.
“NCCAT has always been like family to me, and I’m happy to be here to help as we strive to achieve our mission of serving public school educators,” Wong said. “It is an exciting time to be at NCCAT as Dr. Womble begins his leadership with the great staff here.”