E D CUBED - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• CEO
• Member of the Board of Directors
• President

As a graduate of Spelman College and the University of Idaho, I began a lifetime career as an educator, beginning as a teacher of social studies and retiring as a teacher in a program for gifted students. During my career, which lasted for over thirty years, I endeavored to teach at the highest standards I could, encouraging students to be involved, to participate, and to develop an commitment to learning. My objective was to instill in my students the desire to achieve goals through initiative, planning, and sustained effort. In trying to kindle and sustain the interest of my students, it was helpful for me to provide a wide range of learning situations and opportunities for individual and small group interaction. Some of these included writing projects, guest speakers, debates, mock elections, and special community projects. History and literature came alive, and lessons became less of a humdrum of yesterday as students began to see how they are a part of the societal development of mankind. I and my gifted class visited several countries in Europe. On my own, I have visited Alaska, Mexico, Russia, Canada, South America, Egypt, and Istanbul. Each visit provided a story and a lesson. One of the special community projects for my class was an effort to refurbish the Statue of Liberty. The students raised $1500 in the effort. My students won several map contests with monetary rewards. In furthering my education, I have had the opportunity to serve as a data collector, a teacher consultant for Clark Atlanta University, and a National Geographic Teacher Consultant. I have presented projects at social studies and middle school conferences.

Job Titles:

• Charter Director Emerita / Educator, Community and Political

Earnestine Dennis Pittman worked tirelessly with several attorneys, specifically, Attorney E. Fitzgerald Viera, an attorney with the firm Troutman and Sanders LLP Law Firm. Troutman and Sanders LLP Law Firm provided pro bono work for certain community outreach activities. After an interviews, in which she had to convince the attorney to lobby his firm to support her request, Earnestine D. Pittman had to provide not only evidence that her request for a new start-up organization was viable but also present personal references and documentation of the following:

Job Titles:

• CFO
• Member of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors
• Coordinator of Achievers Program

Job Titles:

• Secretary of the Board of Directors

In 1964, I earned a four year full tuition scholarship to attend Spelman College; I graduated cum laude in 1968. Effective 9/1/2004, I retired from a career spanning 31 years and 10 months in county DFCS employment with the Georgia Department of Human Resources. From 1976-1998, I served as a manager, motivator, and trainer of personnel at Fulton County DFCS whose major strengths (in creating functional materials, in team building, in leadership training by example and customer service/cultural responsiveness training) consistently rendered positive results. From 1991-1992 (During Desert Storm) while still employed by Fulton County DFCS, I served as the volunteer Family Support Coordinator of the Family Support Group of the Atlanta Detachment 2nd Army Maneuver Training Command and as a volunteer member of the Family Support Council of the USAR 87th Maneuver Area Command (now the 4th Brigade, 87th Division). After more than 22 consecutive years of supervision in the benefits sector of Fulton County DFCS, I desired to be able to directly affect the lives of recipients of DFCS services. My last assignment was at Clayton County DFCS where I served as a GPS (Group Preparation & Selection) M.A.P.P. (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) Leader, recruiter and monitor of potential and approved foster and/or foster/adoptive parents. Career Highlights: I am proud of some initiatives I developed and implemented at Fulton County DFACS and of the continued use of the Family Support Model that I developed for the U.S. Army Reserves (USAR) which is used by the Pentagon as a model for family support groups throughout the USAR in the world. In 1987 during the administration of Georgia State DFCS Director, Douglas Greenwell, I was selected as the "exemplary statewide supervisor/manager" in the Georgia Department of Human Services (which included all sectors of the Division of Family and Children Services and Mental Health) and was consequently featured as "the Supervisor" in the 1987 "Count on Me Video". I am most proud of meeting my personal ongoing goal as a manager in inspiring numerous of my supervisees to perform their jobs in an ethical manner, to remain state employees, and to use their experience in seeking, attaining and maintaining administrative positions in which they would also "lead by example". My biographical sketch has appeared in numerous publications of Marquis Who's Who including "Who's Who of American Women" and "Who's Who in the World". I am the recent widow of the late Craig W. Finley, and our Spel-House union produced two sons who are alumni of Morehouse College.