NC Superintendent Of Public Instruction To Speak At UMO

MOUNT OLIVE – The University of Mount Olive will host the annual Braswell Lecture on Thursday, February 16th, 2023, at 7PM in Southern Bank Auditorium. The guest speaker for the event is North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Catherine Truitt.  

Truitt is focused on improving the state’s public schools, expanding innovation, and creating new opportunities for students to learn, grow, and successfully transition into the post-secondary plans of their choice. 

Her service in education began as a high school English teacher, where she spent 10 years as an English teacher and three years as a turnaround coach. In 2015, Truitt was appointed as North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory’s Senior Education Advisor, where she coordinated policy for all dimensions of public education and helped lead the development of strategic state education policy goals for ages 0-20. 

Most recently, Truitt served as Chancellor of Non-Profit Western Governors University North Carolina. 

Truitt has a bachelor of arts in English from the University of Maryland and her master’s in education from the University of Washington. She and her husband have been married for 28 years and have three children. 

The title of her lecture is “Bringing Your Best in the Face of Adversity.”  Truitt will discuss how the pandemic led her to launch Operation Polaris, a four-year strategic plan for the agency, which has brought about opportunity and innovation in the face of adversity.  

The Braswell lecture is held annually in memory of Jessie Dail Braswell. Braswell taught in Princeton public schools for 34 years and demonstrated a life-long commitment to education. The Jessie Dail and Walter Vernon Braswell Endowment funds the Braswell Scholarship. Since 1998, the Braswell Lecture has featured leaders in North Carolina education and presented speeches on significant issues. 

The event is FREE and the public is invited to attend. For more information, contact Dr. Amanda Bullard-Maxwell at abullard-maxwell@umo.edu. 

The University of Mount Olive is a private institution rooted in the liberal arts tradition with defining Christian values. The University is sponsored by the Convention of Original Free Will Baptists. For more information, visit www.umo.edu.