Martha Gough - Literacy Coordinator
Martha Gough has served in several roles within Santa Rosa County District Schools as a literacy leader for two decades. Her positions include ESE ELA teacher for 3 years (Pace High), Reading teacher for 5 years (Pace High), literacy coach for 4 years (Pace High, King and Hobbs Middle), district and state ELA facilitator for 2 years (county and state literacy leaders), school site dean and administrator for 4 years (SS Dixon Intermediate and Central, grades k-12), district mentor for alternative teacher certification for 4 years (Central, Milton, Santa Rosa, and Gulf Breeze High, Gulf Breeze Middle, Locklin Technical College, and Rhodes Elementary). Martha is a product of the Santa Rosa County School District as are her parents and grandparents. She looks forward to supporting the excellent schools in our county and is excited about serving with other leaders in our academically high performing school district.
Balinda Sexton - Literacy Secretary
Balinda Sexton has been with the Santa Rosa County School District since January 2023 after relocating from Northern California and settling in Milton, Florida. Balinda comes from a substantial background of secretarial and management knowledge. She started her career in the medical field working in a comprehensive chiropractic office for 18 years. During her time at the chiropractic office, she mastered coaching, secretarial, and management skills. She grew a passion for supporting and helping people be the very best they can be.
Once she became a mom, she began volunteering in her children’s classrooms. This is where her passion grew in education. Every spare minute she had, she volunteered in the classrooms, coached volleyball, cross country, and track.
In 2020, she resigned from the medical field and entered into education as a Paraprofessional / Front Office Secretary. She felt like this was the best of both words. She was able to work in small groups with students and help support the teachers and staff’s needs.
After moving to Milton, she joined SRCDS and the Literacy team. She is excited to offer her knowledge, skills and support to the Literacy Department as well as the Santa Rosa County District Schools.
Beth Lees - Elementary TSA
Beth Lees has been an educator for 27 years and has been a part of the Literacy Department since 2012. Prior to that, she served as a teacher in the Santa Rosa County School District where she was honored to be named as the 2010 Santa Rosa County Teacher of the Year. Throughout her years in education, she has served as a classroom teacher, site-based literacy coach, and is currently serving as a Teacher on Special Assignment for Elementary Literacy. In this role, she plans and delivers district-wide professional development and assists teachers in implementing the core curriculum and other literacy initiatives. She is a product of the Santa Rosa County School System and is proud to support teachers and students in this outstanding school district.
Whitney Bennett - TSA for Literacy
Whitney graduated from the University of West Florida in 2007, with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and continued her education at Troy University to earn a master’s degree in Counseling and Psychology. She started her teaching career at Benny Russell Elementary School as a Kindergarten teacher, as well as a third grade teacher. During these teaching years, she was honored to be named ‘Rookie of the Year’ as well as ‘Math Teacher of the Year’ for Benny Russell Elementary School. Since leaving the classroom, she has served as a School Counselor, Behavior Coach, and is currently serving as a teacher on special assignment for the literacy department. In this role, her goal is to continue to expand literacy tutoring programs throughout the county, training and equipping tutors to provide the most effective literacy instruction to our Santa Rosa County students.
Kristen White - Elementary School Literacy Coach
Kristen graduated from the University of West Florida, in 2006, with a degree in Elementary Education and a desire to change the world- one student at a time. After graduation, she was hired as a Kindergarten teacher at East Milton Elementary. Soon after she started teaching, her desire to learn and become the best teacher possible sent her back to the University of West Florida for a master’s degree in Reading Education (K-12).
She spent nine, glorious years in kindergarten: teaching hundreds of amazing five- and six-year-old students and learning valuable lessons from them. She then spent three years working as an Elementary Reading Interventionist and STEAM Lab Instructor for students in grades Kindergarten through Fifth grade. In 2017, she was named Santa Rosa County’s Teacher of the Year and had the opportunity to join the Florida Teacher Lead Network. The Teacher Lead Network provided coaching on her instructional practices and helped her develop skills to mentor colleagues. As she learned new information and became more knowledgeable, she felt it was her calling to share with others. She has a passion for leading professional development and collaborating with her colleagues. This passion led her to become a District Mentor Coach for two and a half years before returning to East Milton Elementary as their Literacy Coach. She has a strong love of Literacy and enjoys supporting and mentoring teachers. She strives to provide guidance, encouragement, constructive feedback, and individualized support. She loves that she can help teachers discover their potential, become more capable and confident, and ensure success for the students of Santa Rosa County!
Summer Clark - Elementary School Literacy Coach
Summer Clark is a passionate educator with over 14 years of experience in the classroom. She has taught kindergarten, third grade, and served as an academic intervention specialist. For the past two years, she has been a reading coach and holds a master's degree in curriculum and design. In 2020, she was named Teacher of the Year.
Summer is particularly interested in working with students with reading deficits and helping teachers improve their literacy instruction. She has served as a Pea Ridge mentor teacher for three years and a Mosaic teacher for two years. In these roles, she has worked closely with teachers to develop and implement effective literacy programs.
Summer is a strong believer in the power of literacy to transform lives. She works with after-school tutoring programs and summer school to help boost the love of literacy in her schools. She is committed to helping all students become successful readers and writers. She is also a strong advocate for professional development, always looking for new ways to improve her own teaching.
Summer enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and hiking in her free time. She is also an active member of her community, and she is passionate about making a difference in the lives of others.
Heidi Hancock - Elementary School Literacy Coach
Heidi Hancock has been a teacher for 15 years. She has always been an avid reader, but found her passion for literacy instruction when her son struggled to read in the 1990’s. She spent years in the classroom equipping herself with professional development in literacy by obtaining a reading endorsement, a master’s degree in reading, and a state certification in reading for grades K-12.
As a reading coach, Heidi has the opportunity to work with grades kindergarten through fifth grade, as well as with parents and faculty, to develop lessons that enrich the reading curriculum. Heidi is proud to be surrounded by professional educators who are passionate about literacy and professional development.
Lucy Poole - Elementary School Literacy Coach
Lucy Poole is a 2000 graduate of the University of West Florida with a degree in Pre-K/Primary Education. She began her teaching career in Escambia County teaching Pre-K, kindergarten and first grade over the course of 21 years. Lucy also obtained her master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from American College of Education in 2005. She went on to continue her learning and earn her reading endorsement. In 2021, Lucy made the move to Santa Rosa County to take a position as an Elementary Literacy Coach. She loves learning about the science of reading and is excited to share her knowledge with others. Lucy has a passion for literacy and is excited to help other teachers develop that passion as well.
Carrie Bell - Secondary TSA
After 10 years of teaching ELA in a high school setting, Carrie Bell stepped into the role of a site-based literacy coach at Pace High School where she also assisted with district curriculum implementation. From there, she returned to the classroom and taught English I and was an inclusion math teacher. In 2020, she accepted the position of the secondary TSA for the literacy department. In this role, she has the extreme honor of planning and delivering district-wide trainings, assisting new teachers, managing intervention programs, and working with the literacy team to initiate and expand literacy initiatives across the district. Along with the role of a literacy coach, she has also served as adjunct instructor for Santa Rosa Online, UWF, PSC, and Teacher Ready. Unequivocally, her greatest passion in her current position is equipping teachers to be successful in the classroom by fostering an insatiable love for literacy.
Leslie Briggs - Secondary Literacy Coach
Leslie Briggs is joining the Literacy Department as a secondary literacy coach at King Middle School. Leslie brings 32 years of experience teaching language arts for Santa Rosa County. Her teaching career began at Hobbs Middle School and for the last 22 years, she has been a teacher at Milton High. While at MHS, she taught reading classes, English I Honors, AP Literature & Composition, and she also advised the yearbook staff. Throughout the years, Leslie has delivered district level writing in-service, and she was the 2006 Santa Rosa County Teacher of the Year. She is excited to be in this new role because the success of this community matters to her.
Stephanie Alexander - Secondary Literacy Coach
Stephanie Alexander has 36 years of experience in education. After earning her Bachelor of Education with a Kindergarten Endorsement from Hardin-Simmons University, her career started in Texas as a second-grade teacher and then as a fourth-grade teacher. After moving to Florida in 1990, she began teaching at Pea Ridge Elementary where her career span 23 years teaching Kindergarten, first grade, Title 1 reading, Reading Recovery, and third grade. For the last ten years, she has been a coach at five elementary and two secondary schools.
Stephanie also has experience as an adjunct for the University of West Florida where she teaches reading and other educational courses. She was awarded the Adjunct Faculty of Excellence Award in 2018 and has presented with the university at the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) conferences over the past few years. The opportunity to partner with the university offers her the ability to bond with future teachers through the university classroom and to partner with them as they bridge educational theory into real-world practice in their classrooms.
As a Reading Recovery teacher, Stephanie found her passion in assisting struggling readers. “If children are unable to learn, we should assume that we have not as of yet found the right way to teach them” (Marie Clay). This quote became her mantra, and she began her journey to learn as much as she could about teaching children to read. She earned a Master of Science with an emphasis in Reading and Literacy and is currently completing aDoctorate of Educationin Reading and Literacy Leadership. Her most recent accomplishment was completing the University of Florida Literacy Institutes Literacy Coach Endorsement. It is her desire to use the knowledge she obtained to enrich and expand literacy learning in Santa Rosa County Schools.
Kelly Rohan - Secondary Literacy Coach
Kelly has been an educator in Santa Rosa County for 26 years. She began her career teaching seventh-grade Language Arts and eighth-grade Drama at Gulf Breeze Middle School. Over the next decade, she taught a variety of grades at the elementary level, including several years in fifth grade. Following her love of reading, she transitioned to the Library Media Specialist role where she served for nine years. After completing her Master's in Reading, she then moved to Avalon Middle School where she taught seventh and eighth-grade Intensive Language Arts. She has spent the last six years at Navarre High School teaching Intensive Language Arts and serving as an ELA Interventionist. She is excited to move into her new role as the Literacy Coach at Avalon Middle School.
Angela Hoomes - Secondary Literacy Coach
Angela Hoomes began her career teaching middle school ELA in Palatka, FL. After 3 years, she moved to Pace High School and taught 9th-11th ELA for 13 years and then served as a media specialist for 13 years. In 2021, she became a literacy coach. She loves helping teachers be successful. Reading is a passion for her, and there's nothing better for her than sharing that passion with others.