Wednesday, May 2, 2001
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Wednesday, May 2, 2001 |
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Local school psychologist nominated for national award By DAVE
HAMRICK Out of 25,000 school psychologists nationwide, Deborah Crockett was selected as one of the top three contenders for National School Psychologist of the Year. Having been named Georgia Psychologist of the Year by the Georgia Association of School Psychologists (GASP), Crockett automatically became the state's nominee for the national award. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) chooses three finalists from nominees submitted by each state. In April, Crockett attended the National School Psychologists Conference in Washington, D.C. to hear the announcement of the winner. "That's when it hit me that out of all of the psychologists in the country, I was chosen as one of the top three," recalls Crockett. Although she did not win the coveted national award, she is proud of her many accomplishments that lead to her nomination. This year Crockett helped the Fayette County School System organize a crisis intervention team in the event a major catastrophe should happen in one of the schools. She worked in conjunction with the system's safety plan developed by Wayne Robinson, director of secondary school operations, to form a team of school personnel and community leaders who can be dispatched at a moment's notice to deal with any type of crisis. So far she has led the team through four training sessions and is planning another one in August. At the state level, Crockett has been very active in GASP over the last 12 years. She was the first African American president of the association and has been working diligently to bring diversity issues to the forefront of the organization. Nationally, she helped to start the NASP Minority Scholarship fund in 1995. Due to her hard work, the fund grew quickly and this year received monetary gifts of over $200,000. "I think it's important for people to know that I am not doing this for myself," said Crockett. "I am really committed to getting people into the profession." Crockett points out that school psychologists are different from clinical and industrial psychologists. Those that are geared toward education have had specific training in how to understand the school climate. School psychologists cannot work in the field until they have completed 120 hours of post baccalaureate work. The main goal of a school psychologist is to work with schools to make their environments more functional and healthy for students.
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