Cathy D. Mabry is renowned as a retired elementary educator with more than 30 years of service to her profession and students. Inspired by her fifth grade teacher, she decided early in her life to pursue a career in education. She initially pursued an education at the University of Georgia, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and psychology in 1975. Completing education licensure coursework at Oglethorpe University in 1983, she continued her studies at Oglethorpe University in 1990, earning a Master of Education in elementary education. Ms. Mabry concluded her academic efforts with a Master of Arts in educational administration at Georgia State University in 1997.
Prior to her career in education, Ms. Mabry worked as a member of the charge account services staff at C&S National Bank in Atlanta from 1974 to 1975. Serving with Sears & Roebuck and Rich’s in Decatur, Georgia, from 1974 to 1978, she further flourished as an intermediate clerk for the Superior Court of DeKalb County, Georgia, from 1978 to 1981. She was appointed as a kindergarten paraprofessional for the DeKalb County School System in 1978, a post she held for six years. Ms. Mabry subsequently found success as a teacher for the aforementioned school system from 1984 until her retirement in 2010.
Ms. Mabry is a former member of the Hooper Alexander School school-based management committee, and a member of the social studies curriculum and strategic planning committees for DeKalb County School System. She is active in community initiatives, focusing specifically on the youth and public health, and is affiliated with the Emory University School of Public Health Teach Well Wellness Program. Likewise, she is a lauded poet and has had her written works included in the American Poetry Anthology in 1986. Furthermore, Ms. Mabry has maintained her involvement with the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women, Inc., and Zeta Phi Beta.
Notably, Ms. Mabry is a volunteer member of the Juvenile Justice Panel Review since 2015, which reviews court cases and will determine the adoptive status for that child. The mentors who motivated and inspired her were her parents, G.W. and Erma Mabry, and her grandmother, Bessie Bell-Smith. What Ms. Mabry has learned over the course of her career that has most benefited her in her professional growth is that you never cease learning. There is always room to learn. The more you learn means the more you know, which pushes you further up the ladder of success.