Sherry Hatt tapped to become SAPCC's new Executive Director

On January 1, 2014, Sherry Hatt will step into her new position as Executive Director of the Springfield Area Parent Child Center.

On January 1, 2014, Sherry will step into her new position as Executive Director, working on transitioning with our current founding Executive Director, Betty Kinsman, through Betty’s retirement date of February 12, 2014. While this will be a new position for Sherry, she is no stranger to Springfield Area Parent Child Center, having worked at the Center for the past 20 years, almost from its

inception.

Springfield has very strong roots for Sherry and her family; she’s lived here all her life with her husband Mike and her twin sons. Sherry pursued her goal of becoming a teacher, earning her Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from Springfield College in MA. She taught for two years at Riverside Middle School and one year as a first grade teacher at Union Street Elementary School. At that point in her life, she felt that this was the career path that she would find rewarding for the rest of her life. As happens with many young couples, Sherry and Mike found that they were to become parents of twin boys, so Sherry resigned from her teaching position and became a stay at home mom for the next three and half years.

In 1993 she interviewed with Betty and Joyce Duback at the newly formed Springfield Area Parent Child Center in its original location on Myrtle Street. Sherry responded to an ad for a part time job as a Parent Educator, doing home visits during the school year. Instead, the hiring committee suggested Sherry for the role of the Community Resource Parent. The intent of this full time position was to offer support to parents struggling to find resources to address concerns for children with special needs. This led to her current role as the Coordinator of the Children’s Integrated Services Program now in place at the Center. During her interview Sherry shared her story and her passion, born from some of her own family experiences. She firmly believes that we must make sure that parents of our youngest children with special needs have a voice and all the support and assistance that we can possibly give them to meet their challenges. This passion

still burns brightly for Sherry today.

In fact, it’s this same passion that has lead Sherry to pursue this next step and continue the legacy Betty began by taking on her new role as Executive Director. She believes that her strengths lie in the supervisory capacity and collaborative relationships she has made in her 20 year tenure here at SAPCC. And further she feels that her loyalty and years of service can be paid back to the agency by taking this next step. Sherry states that her number one goal is to see that the agency has a seamless transition from our first director to our second, to make things easy on our staff,  programs and collaborators. Additionally, Sherry is most interested in making sure that personnel and programs continue to have the tools, training and support to do the hard work it takes to meet our mission statement of Strong Community, One Family at a Time.

-- Source:  Springfield Area Parent Child Center

Congratulations to Sherry Hatt, tapped by SAPCC’s Board to become new Executive Director On January 1, 2014, Sherry will step into her new position as Executive Director, working on transitioning with our current founding Executive Director, Betty Kinsman, through Betty’s retirement date of February 12, 2014. While this will be a new position for Sherry, she is no stranger to Springfield Area Parent Child Center, having worked at the Center for the past 20 years, almost from its inception. Springfield has very strong roots for Sherry and her family; she’s lived here all her life with her husband Mike and her twin sons. Sherry pursued her goal of becoming a teacher, earning her Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from Springfield College in MA. She taught for two years at Riverside Middle School and one year as a first grade teacher at Union Street Elementary School. At that point in her life, she felt that this was the career path that she would find rewarding for the rest of her life. As happens with many young couples, Sherry and Mike found that they were to become parents of twin boys, so Sherry resigned from her teaching position and became a stay at home mom for the next three and half years. In 1993 she interviewed with Betty and Joyce Duback at the newly formed Springfield Area Parent Child Center in its original location on Myrtle Street. Sherry responded to an ad for a part-time position as a Parent Educator, doing home visits during the school year. Instead, the hiring committee suggested Sherry for the role of the Community Resource Parent. The intent of this full time position was to offer support to parents struggling to find resources to address concerns for children with special needs. This led to her current role as the Coordinator of the Children’s Integrated Services Program now in place at the Center. During her interview Sherry shared her story and her passion, born from some of her own family experiences. She firmly believes that we must make sure that parents of our youngest children with special needs have a voice and all the support and assistance that we can possibly give them to meet their challenges. This passion still burns brightly for Sherry today. In fact, it’s this same passion that has lead Sherry to pursue this next step and continue the legacy Betty began by taking on her new role as Executive Director. She believes that her strengths lie in the supervisory capacity and collaborative relationships she has made in her 20 year tenure here at SAPCC. And further she feels that her loyalty and years of service can be paid back to the agency by taking this next step. Sherry states that her number one goal is to see that the agency has a seamless transition from our first director to our second, to make things easy on our staff, programs and collaborators. Additionally, Sherry is most interested in making sure that personnel and programs continue to have the tools, training and support to do the hard work it takes to meet our mission statement of building Strong Community, One Family at a Time.