David Grant is completing his first year of doctoral studies at the University of Central Florida majoring in Exceptional Student Education.  He is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and completed his undergraduate degree in management from Saint Louis University in 1993.  He received a Mater of Arts degree in Varying Exceptionalities from the University of Central Florida in 2003.  His educational career has included teaching students with emotional and behavioral disorders and his research focus is in the effects of positive African American men as role models and mentors to African American male youths and adolescents in urban settings.  

Historian -  Willette Young. 

Willette was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She went to Florida International University and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education.  Shortly after finishing her bachelors, she began working on her Master’s at University of Miami.  While pursuing her masters, Willette continued to teach full time at Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach, Florida as well as work with young children with special needs. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Exceptional Education. Her continuous work with exceptional children derives from her love of the profession. Inspired by a biography on the legendary teacher, Mary McLeod Bethune and motivated by her parents, who were educators for more than twenty years, Willette made the decision to become a teacher.  She has made many contributions to her local community and abroad such as a leading an AIDS awareness workshop in Africa, overseeing a community mentor program, and assisting with the building of a school in Jamaica.  Willette’s focus of research is pre-kindergarten students with disabilities and their families.  In addition, to working with early childhood, Willette has had the opportunity to work with Discovery Middle School through the Holme partnership.  Willette plans to devote the same passion and tenacity to Holmes as she does her other pursuits.