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County Head Start director honored by TAMU-C
By Mary Madewell
Published November 21, 2009
Judie Forté Huff, director of Lamar County Head Start since 1993, was recently selected as the Bachelor of Social Work Field Instructor of the Year by the Texas A&M University Commerce School of Social Work.
Born in Clarksville and a 1976 graduate of Clarksville High School, Huff graduated From East Texas State University in December 1983 with a dual degree in social work and sociology.
“I graduated from the same program and it is like coming full circle,” Huff said about the award. “I enjoying helping these students and to see them take that last step before they go out to work to help others. I am excited to do that.”
Huff began working for Paris Independing School District in August 1992 as a social worker for the Paris ISD Head Start Program. In 1993, the director resigned and then Superintendent Elaine Ballard appointed Huff interim Director of the program until a new director could be named.
“In that year, we expanded the program county-wide, opened three additional sites, increased the number of students, hired several additional staff persons and went through our first federal audit,” Huff said. “I was hired as the full time director at the end of the year.”
Huff has been a field instructor for the Texas A&M University — Commerce School of Social Work since 1996. Each year senior bachelor level social work students are assigned to work in a wide variety of community agencies in order to obtain experience prior to working as licensed social workers.
Field Instructors are charged with the responsibility of preparing the students to work effectively in their chosen profession. “I am and have always felt greatly honored to be a part of the process,” Huff said.
Being a graduate of the program, Huff said she is aware of the intense preparation provided by the A&M program.
“Many years ago, the instructors in the program helped me to shape my own beliefs and goals,” she said. “Dan Forrestor and Gail Olezene were caring, smart, innovative and somewhat radical professors. They pushed us to lengths that we never had imagined, accepted no excuses and celebrated our successes as if we had conquered the world.
“As a field instructor, hopefully, I am helping someone else to believe in their abilities in the same way that those two people helped me,” Huff said.
Following college graduation, Huff began working for Hunt County Family Services in Greenville as a Social Worker providing case management services for adults diagnosed with mental retardation and/or mental health issues. The goal of the team of social workers, counselors, nurses and psychiatrist was to assist clients in obtaining the necessary skills and resources to live semi-independently in the Greenville community.
While there, Huff began work in the Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) Program.
“It was an opportunity to assist parents as they begin to wade through the adjustment process of taking care of their newborn children who had been born with from very minor to heartbreakingly severe challenges,” Huff said.
In 1987, Huff moved to Paris to work for the Denton State School Outreach Program, which included Innovative Enterprises and the Lamar County ECI program where she provided a variety of services for persons residing in Lamar, Delta and Hopkins Counties.
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