Dr. Jackie Tobias has been an educator for over 30 years and she is in her eleventh year as a principal. She spent her early years as a counselor starting in elementary school, moving to middle and then later, to high school. She was not the person that one would expect to be an educator. In fact, she hated high school. 

Her family migrated to America when she was 17 and she entered high school in America for the second half of her senior year. She barely survived high school, but she managed to get into college because of her high school counselor, who saw something in her: the ability to succeed and assisted her in applying to the University of Florida. This was the beginning of her “calling” as an educator.  She considers this her ministry. She takes pride in enabling children to succeed as someone did for her. 

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She went on to graduate with Bachelor’s, Masters and Specialist degrees in Education and School Counseling. She followed later with a Master’s degree in School Administration from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Her formal education culminated with a Doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Gardner Webb University. She is driven to become an expert in helping children succeed and to put structures in place so teachers are equipped to assist students like herself, whom no one thought would succeed. 

Dr. Tobias is the 2020 Durham Public Schools Principal of the Year.