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Susan Kimbrough is announcing her candidacy for Prince Edward County School Board, District 701 as a write-in candidate.

Kimbrough has more than two decades of educational experience, working as both a K-12 teacher and as an adjunct instructor for aspiring teachers at The University of North Carolina Greensboro.

During her 23 years in the teaching profession, Kimbrough’s resume has been bound by two common threads: an all-encompassing commitment to helping at-risk students succeed and a dedication to empowering fellow educators to improve in all areas of the profession. She is a National Board Certified teacher and a certified Reading Recovery teacher. She holds a B.S. in secondary education and an M.P.P.A in public policy and administration from Mississippi State University, as well as a Reading Recovery certificate from North Carolina A&T University and a Graduate Certificate in reading from University of Colorado.

“I am running for school board because every child deserves a quality education, and our schools are failing our students,” Kimbrough said. “To reach their full potential, our schools need inspiring and innovative leadership on the Board. I can provide that. We have one the highest teacher turnover rates in the state, and 25% of our teachers are teaching on a provisional license.

“We must use every resource at our disposal to recruit and retain a high-quality workforce. Additionally, the physical buildings of our schools must be addressed. I will work with the board of supervisors to address the immediate need for a new roof at the elementary school and other glaring capital needs. If we continue to operate the way we have in the past, we will continue to fall further and further behind. We can’t let that happen.”

Kimbrough spent almost 20 years of her teaching career at the groundbreaking Early/Middle College at Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) in Jamestown, North Carolina One of the first early/middle colleges established in the state, the school provides an alternative high school setting for at-risk youth in grades 9-12 to earn both a high school diploma and an associate degree while they are in high school.

At the Early/Middle College, Kimbrough held numerous leadership positions in addition to her teaching role. She served as chairperson of the social studies department, was a professional learning community leader and was an assistant to administrators and fellow teachers in curriculum development, lesson modeling and instructional strategies.

In addition to her traditional teaching and leadership positions at the Early/Middle College, Kimbrough also served as an adjunct instructor at The University of North Carolina Greensboro working with lateral entry teachers.

Kimbrough’s unique perspective on the teaching profession was shaped by her journey into the field, which followed her early professional ventures as director of human resources at a large hospital and president of a multimillion-dollar travel agency. After moving to Greensboro, North Carolina in 1996, she entered the teaching profession. She taught full-time in the North Carolina public school system every year until her retirement from the Guilford County School System in of 2019.

Since moving to Farmville, Kimbrough has become active in the community and her church. She serves on the Board of Directors of PE’S Kids, a nonprofit organization that assists students in Prince Edward County. She also serves on the hospitality committee at her church and is the coordinator of the children’s sermons.

Kimbrough and her husband, Jim, are the grandparents of two Prince Edward County School students, Susan and Martha Beth Cook, and Prince Edward graduate Brenda Goodson, now a senior at James Madison University.