CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A Bechtel Elementary School kindergarten teacher has been selected to serve as special education coordinator for the Okinawa district of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools.

Gayle Vaughn-Wiles, DODDS-Okinawa District superintendent, announced the appointment of Gladys Blount on Friday.

“I am pleased to be able to get someone as qualified as Gladys to head our special education efforts on Okinawa,” she said.

Blount has been an educator for 20 years. She has taught special education preschool, elementary and middle school students, as well as regular education grades first, third and fifth. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary cducation with an emphasis on special education, and a master’s degree in educational diagnostics. Both degrees are from the University of Texas at El Paso.

Before moving to Bechtel Elementary School, where she taught kindergarten, Blount was responsible for coordinating and monitoring special education programs and services for approximately 15 Department of Defense Education Activity schools in Panama, Guantanamo Bay and Puerto Rico.

She was co-chairwoman for four years on the National Advisory Panel for Department of Defense Schools and was a nominee for the Federal Advisory Panel for 2005. She succeeds Kathy Heath, who accepted a position with the DODDS-Pacific/DDESS Guam Area Office.

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