"Re-Imagining Educator Preparation in South Carolina" is the topic of the 2017 Fall Conference of the South Carolina Association of Teacher Educators (SCATE) on Friday, Oct. 13, at Coastal Carolina University. Hosted by CCU's Spadoni College of Education, the conference will offer presentations from 15 statewide institutions of higher education, including Lander, Coker, Columbia College, Winthrop, and the University of South Carolina. Sessions will take place in the Edward M. Singleton and Eldred E. Prince buildings on campus from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m.

Jed Dearybury, a former S.C. Teacher of the Year and director of professional development and communications for the Palmetto State Teachers Association, will present the keynote address at 8:30 a.m. in the Singleton Ballroom.

For a complete schedule of sessions, visit https://sites.google.com/converse.edu/scate/conference.

A noon awards banquet will feature Mary Woodward, a music teacher at North Vista Elementary School in Florence, who is a finalist for the 2018 South Carolina Teacher of the Year and a 2018 Honor Roll Teacher.

A "hot topics" panel discussion will be held at 12:40 p.m., focusing on critical issues such as educator recruitment, retention and attrition in South Carolina.

The panel will address educator supply and demand issues in South Carolina from three important perspectives. Sen. Greg Hembree will present the legislative perspective; Lilla Toal-Mandsager, director of education effectiveness and leadership development, will offer the State Department of Education perspective; and Edward Jadallah, dean of CCU's Spadoni College of Education, will provide the viewpoint of the educator preparation provider.

Following brief presentations from each panel member, questions will be taken from the audience.

Hembree serves as the designee of Senate Education Chairman John Courson. He earned a B.B.A. in economics from the University of Memphis in 1982 and a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1986, and has also been admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

  Toal-Mandsager earned a B.A. in English literature from Stanford University, a master's degree in education from the Stanford University School of Education, and is currently studying educational administration at the University of South Carolina.

Jadallah is professor and dean of the Spadoni College of Education and vice president for online education and teaching excellence at CCU. Before joining the CCU faculty in Fall 2010, Jadallah served as the college chairperson for the teacher education faculty and as cooperating faculty in the School of Policy and International Affairs at the University of Maine. Jadallah has 38 years of postsecondary teaching and administrative experience, specializing in curriculum design and evaluation, teacher education and global studies.

Contact Jamia Richmond for more information on the conference at 843-349-6578 or jrichmon@coastal.edu.