Center Staff

Executive Director of the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network (NDPC/N)

Dr. Jay Smink
Dr. Smink holds a Doctorate in Educational Administration from Pennsylvania State University. Jay has been the Executive Director since 1988. His experiences range from teaching at the local school level to research at the university level. He consults regularly in a variety of capacities and serves on several boards across the nation. Jay focuses a great deal of his research and writing on mentoring.
sjay@clemson.edu

Director of the National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD)

Dr. Loujeania Williams Bost
Dr. Bost holds a Ph.D. in Special Education from Pennsylvania State University. She has an extensive background in working with students with disabilities. Dr. Bost was the chief of statewide compliance, monitoring, and technical assistance for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She has been a public school teacher, a program administrator for agencies serving adults and adolescents with mental retardation, and a researcher.
lbost@clemson.edu

Associate Director

Dr. Sam Drew
Dr. Drew joined the Center as Associate Director in July 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of South Carolina. He has over 32 years of experience in education ranging from an elementary school principal, to special assistant in the United States Department of Education, to State Director of Adult Education in South Carolina. His research interests are adult education and advocacy intervention for at-risk students.
sdrew@clemson.edu

Assistant Director

Dr. Terry Cash
Dr. Cash joined the Center as Assistant Director in April 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of South Carolina. Terry brings an extensive professional background to the Center, having served as a teacher and/or administrator at every level of public education. His research interests and background are in the areas of funding and effectiveness for alternative school programs serving at-risk youth.
tcash@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Mrs. Susan Burke
Mrs. Burke retired from public education with 33 years of experience at the middle and elementary school levels as a teacher, guidance counselor, and instructional facilitator. She holds a Masters plus 30 hours degree from Clemson University in Elementary Education with an emphasis in curriculum and instruction. She is also a National Board Certified Teacher. Mrs. Burke has experience in developing service learning activities and working with at-risk students.
wolfe5@clemson.edu

Information Resource Coordinator

Mrs. Peg Chrestman
Mrs. Chrestman has been with the Center since 1990. She is our desktop publisher and editorial assistant on all Center publications. She is also our computer hardware and software consultant.
merry@clemson.edu

Public Information Director

Mrs. Marty Duckenfield
Mrs. Duckenfield has a Master's degree in Nutritional Science from Clemson University. Formerly a teacher, she has been with the Center since 1988. Initially hired to develop a database of resource materials, today she supervises all Center publications, including production of The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network Newsletter. In addition to publications, Marty co-hosts the monthly radio webcast, Solutions to the Dropout Crisis, and coordinates the Center's service-learning activities.
mbdck@clemson.edu

Administrative Specialist II

Ms. Denise Gianforcaro
Mrs. Gianforcaro is an Administrative Specialist II and has been with the Center since April of 2008. She manages the Cvent online registration system and provides administrative support for all aspects of conference planning, registration, and implementation. She also manages the NDPN membership database and processes membership and literature requests.
jgianfo@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Dr. Gwenda R. Greene
Dr. Greene holds the Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy from Union Institute and University. She joined the Center in 2008 with more than 25 years experience as a certified secondary education teacher, higher education professor and administrator, and director of academic-based programs that impact at-risk populations. Dr. Greene provides training in service-learning and technical assistance to the Nine Schools Project which assists schools with meeting the EEDA requirement of developing and implementing a long range dropout prevention program.
ggreene@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Catherine Aurentz Griffith
Ms. Griffith obtained the degree Master of Education from Harvard University in 2002 and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Special Education at the Curry School of Education of the University of Virginia. She joined the Center in 2006 to implement, monitor, and evaluate a longitudinal research study that investigates the effect of the Jamestown Reading Navigator program on middle and high school students' reading skills and high school graduation status.
cgriffi@clemson.edu

Administrative Assistant

Mrs. Debbie Hall
Mrs. Hall is an Administrative Assistant, and has been with the Center since 2005. She provides administrative and support services, is responsible for accounting and payroll procedures, and manages the databases for conference registrations.
hall6@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Dr. Cathy Hammond
Dr. Hammond has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Before moving to Clemson, she spent 15 years working with local and state school safety and violence prevention programs in Florida. She joined the Center in 2005 to carry out a systematic research synthesis of risk factors for school dropout. Currently she is assisting with several third-party evaluations of local programs and initiatives through onsite observations, focus groups with teachers and students, and analysis of student and school outcome data.
hammon3@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Melissa Hawkins
Ms. Hawkins has a Master's degree in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management from Clemson University. She has worked for Clemson University for over 8 years in grant project management. Currently, she manages the Southern sites for the Y.O.D.A. (Youth Organized for Disaster Action) project through a partnership with the Institute for Global Education and Service Learning. Y.O.D.A is funded by a Learn and Serve America grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service.
melisso@clemson.edu

Administrative Assistant

Ms. Elizabeth Hilst

ehilst@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Dr. Matthew Klare
Dr. Klare joined the NDPC-SD in March 2005, coming from American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC. For the last 18 years, Dr. Klare's focus has been in the areas of assessment development and operations. While at AIR, he worked on alternate assessments, Braille and LEP accommodations for statewide achievement tests at grades K-8. At NDPC-SD he provides technical assistance to states and is assisting with the development of a model of dropout prevention for students with disabilities that incorporates research-based practices.
mklare@clemson.edu

Information Resource Consultant

Mrs. Lanae Neild
Mrs. Neild has a Master's degree in Computer Science from Clemson University, and a Bachelor's degree in Education from Oklahoma State University. Her specialties include management of information systems and computer programming. She is responsible for maintaining, and creating new features for, the NDPC/N and NDPC-SD Web sites. Lanae also provides programming and database services as needed for the Center's various activities.
lneild@clemson.edu

Network Coordinator

Mr. John Peters
Mr. Peters earned a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. He has been with the Center since 1992. Initially hired to provide Network support services, today he also handles the logistics of our professional development seminars, conferences, and workshops.
pj@clemson.edu

Adminstrative Assistant

Mrs. Mary Polen
Mrs. Polen is an Administrative Assistant to the Center and is responsible for accounting procedures. Mary and then-Director Dick Hamby started the Center in 1987 out of a cardboard box!
mpolen@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Ms. Bev Sevick
Ms. Sevick holds a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Wayne State, specializing in Alternative Education, and a B.S. in Secondary Commercial Education/French from Montana State University. After many years of teaching economics, vocational education and French in Illinois, Ms. Sevick developed and administered a 5 - 12 alternative school-within-a-school on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Nebraska. Bev has come out of retirement to act as team leader for the NDPC portion of the Alaska Native Success grant for Southeast Alaska.
bsevick@clemson.edu

Special Project Coordinator

Mrs. Linda Shirley
Mrs. Shirley, a former teacher, has been with the Center since 1988. She holds a Master's degree in Industrial Technical Education from Clemson University. Linda is responsible for the Center's staff development ranging from teacher in-service days to national conferences.
paige@clemson.edu

Webmaster

Ms. Susan Sitaraman
Ms. Sitaraman has a Master's degree in Computer Science from The Ohio State University, and a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Bucknell University. She provides IT support for the Center's various activities and is responsible for maintaining and updating the NDPC/N web site.
ssitara@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Dr. Sandra Covington Smith
Dr. Smith holds a Ph.D. in Special Education with an emphasis in Behavior Disorders from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is a Certified Positive Behavior Support Trainer as part of the University of Missouri-Columbia Research Collaborative Partnership with the National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. Presently, Dr. Smith develops technical assistance documents to be used by state education agencies, policymakers, local education agencies, and parents; and coordinates and provides training and technical assistance to state education agencies to develop effective dropout prevention programs and interventions based on assessment of recipient needs.
sandras@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Susie Evatt Turbeville
Ms. Turbeville has been affiliated with the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University since February 1999, as a Research Associate. She earned her degree in Elementary Education from Clemson University. As a certified teacher with more than 13 years' teaching experience, she has worked within a broad spectrum of education from academically gifted to mentally handicapped students to graduate students. Susie's work in program evaluation and assessment includes third-party program evaluation and serving as a member of PAR (Program Assessment and Review) teams for NDPC. She also provides training and technical assistance for several programs, and is trained as a reviewer for federal grant proposals.
turbevs@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Dr. Ted Wesley
Dr. Wesley holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Mississippi State University and an M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Lamar University in Texas. Ted started working at the Center in 2002, but he formerly worked as a program evaluator at Clemson's Strom Thurmond Institute. Ted's specialty areas are program evaluation and assessment and educational research. He is also especially interested in teachers' adoption of educational technology and in organizational change and development.
tedw@clemson.edu

Research Associate

Cairen Withington
Ms. Withington holds an M.A. in Economics from the University of South Carolina, specializing in the economics of human capital and education, and a B.A. in English from College of Charleston. She has worked off and on for Clemson University for over 20 years, most recently as a consultant for the Houston Center for the Status of Blacks in Higher Education, and has taught economics at Tri-County Technical College. She has been with the Center since the summer of 2006 and works part time. She is currently working on "A Longitudinal Study of the South Carolina Personal Pathways to Success Initiative."
cairenw@clemson.edu