Lindsey Vicknair
What is your role with The Center and what are you most excited about?
I am the Director of Advancement at The Center, and I am ecstatic to be in this new role. What I am most excited about is the growth of our department. Early Childhood Education is incredibly important, and more and more stakeholders are beginning to recognize that. I am excited about our growing team, and the future impacts we will have on early childhood education.
What is your background?
My undergraduate degree is in Communication Sciences and Disorders. When I was in graduate school to earn my Masters’s in Speech Pathology, I realized while working for Early Steps that I liked what the special instructors were doing more, so I switched to the Education department and earned my Masters’s degree in Special Education – Early Intervention. I have worked in multiple early childhood settings – from Early Steps (Louisiana’s birth to three early intervention services program) to playgroups, to pre-k and kindergarten classrooms, and was most recently the Early Childhood Master Teacher in my parish for three years before joining the Early Childhood team here at The Center for Literacy and Learning.
What is your favorite childhood book or literacy memory?
I have always loved to read. I remember getting fussed in first grade during spelling tests because my teacher would repeat the words a few times while giving us the test to make sure everyone had ample time to write the words out. While she repeated the words, I would sneak and read my “Babysitters Club” books under my desk while I waited. Needless to say, I got busted a lot.
Flashback to when you were 10 years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be a pediatrician when I grew up. I have always had a love for children and making people feel better, and I thought that would be my dream job. That dream changed when I got to college and had my first anatomy class!
If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
Anywhere with my family. My husband and I have two little boys, and they are our whole world. Every age has come with its own struggles and blessings, and I am thoroughly enjoying the ride!
What passion projects do you have outside of work?
I am very active in the Home and School Association of my children’s school and my husband and I volunteer at our Church. We also serve on the board of our local baseball park, and I have been the coach of one of our local summer swim teams since I was 19 (Go Stingrays!). I love to teach people how to swim, and giving someone who is afraid of the water the confidence to enjoy being in and around the water is one of my greatest joys.