Published: December 04, 2008 09:57 am            

WHS 1960 graduate named SECA president

LOUISIANA — A 1960 Weatherford High School graduate has recently been named president of the Southern Early Childhood Association (SECA), an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and families living in the 14 Southern states.

Janie Hott Humphries, who now lives in Louisiana, also graduated with honors from Weatherford College in 1962, received a homemaking degree from TWU in 1964, earned her Master’s in Education at East Texas State University in Commerce as well as her doctorate in 1986. She is presently a professor of Family and Child Studies and Coordinator of Early Childhood/Child Development Programs at Louisiana Tech University.

Humphries also served as the director of the Model Learning Center, College of Education at Texas A&M – Commerce, and was a kindergarten teacher at both Greenville ISD and the Noble, Okla. public schools. She has served as president of the Louisiana Early Childhood Association, Louisiana’s representative on the board of directors of SECA and as the chairperson of SECA’s editorial committee.

Some of her duties will include ensuring that both the organizational and fiduciary responsibilities are met as well as being the “public face” of SECA. She will also be the leader for strategic planning and will act as a liaison to state affiliate presidents and other organizations.

A sampling of Humphries’ many accomplishments includes the creation of a Model Learning Center at Texas A&M Commerce. She established the Lincoln Institutions Networking for Children that was later recognized by Redbook Magazine, USA Today, and the Louisiana State Senate as a notable early childhood program. She was the consultant for the Louisiana universal pre-kindergarten bill and has been invited to speak to teachers and administrators across the nation. In 2005, she addressed the graduating class of TWU.

Humphries has published more than 30 articles on topics ranging from computers in preschool, to summer activities for children, to the qualities of childhood teachers. She has presented at state, national and international meetings, and was one of 35 participants at the Oxford Round Table in Oxford, England in 2004.

Humphries has a twin sister, Janice, and one son, James.

        

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