Our Board:

In 2005, she completed the nine-month Partners in Policymaking program and was the recipient of the 2006 Georgia Council on Developmental Disability Advocate of the Year Award. She joined the Board of Directors of All About Developmental Disabilities (now doing business under the Bobby Dodd Institute, BDI) in 2006, going on to serve as Board Chair from 2008 to 2012. She currently serves as the Board Chair for the Georgia Community Trust of BDI and the Board Chair for The Rutledge Center whose Board of Directors she joined in 2006. She is a co-founder of Coweta Supporters of Developmental Disabilities, and Community At Home. Linda continues to work closely with the Coweta County School System’s Parent Mentor to provide education whenever possible. Linda has been married to Chet since 1981 with two grown daughters and one granddaughter. Their younger daughter, Cheryl, is profoundly delayed and lives with them. In her spare time, Linda enjoys golf, reading, and travelling as well as spending time with her family.

She later served as the In-School Coordinator for Special Education at Smokey Road Middle School and has been in her current position, Special Education Program Specialist at Central Office, since 2004. Specifically, her responsibilities include Special Education programming at each of the schools that feed to Northgate High School, the district’s Vision Impaired Program, Elementary Self-Contained, Extended School Year Programming, Summer Reading Remediation, and Collaboration/Co-Teaching. She is very proud of her time serving the families of Coweta County and is excited to extend her service to Rutledge Center.

Jay is an active member of Kiwanis Club of Newnan, Coweta Board of Realtors, and Coweta County Chamber of Commerce.  Jay has been a volunteer at Rutledge Center for over ten years. He enjoys golf, woodworking, outside activities and spending time with his family. 

 

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Lori started her teaching career in Cherokee, North Carolina, on the Cherokee boundary, first as an elementary teacher and later as a special education teacher. From there, she moved on to teaching students in a day treatment center run by a mental health agency. After teaching for ten years in North Carolina, Lori felt a spiritual calling to teach Christian school in China. She served in China for ten years as an elementary and principal.
In China, through volunteering at a municipal orphanage, Lori met and adopted her daughter, Sarah, who has cerebral palsy. Since the adoption, Lori has dedicated much of her life to providing the services, treatments, and equipment needed for Sarah to achieve her best potential possible. Lori and Sarah moved to Newnan in 2010 and have enjoyed being part of the community. They have taken part in Special Olympics activities through both Coweta County Schools and Reece Center for Handicapped Horsemanship. Lori has participated in fundraising activities for Special Olympics, Lyndsey Riggs Foundation, the Reece Center, Camp Dream, etc. The Whitneys enjoy engaging in the community through events like Taste of Newnan, Newnan Nights, Art in the Park and other community activities. They are also active members of SonRise Baptist Church.
Lori is currently pursuing opening a business to employ adults in Coweta County with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The goal is to provide meaningful and worthwhile employment, while creating bridges in the the non-disabled community and removing the stigma surrounding disability.