— LISTEE'S SPOTLIGHT —

Dawn Gabbitas Abell is a retired educator, administrator and artist who dedicated her career to innovating solutions to better meet the needs of K-12 and adult continuing education students. A natural creative voice, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in art education from Eastern Michigan University and began her career as an art and remedial language arts teacher for Clover School District 2. Ms. Abell returned to higher education at Winthrop University, earning a Master of Education in school administration in 1982. She continued to teach special needs, gifted and vocational students through the early 1990s, serving as the district vocational coordinator for Aiken County Public Schools and Richland County School District 1 and an assistant director of the South Carolina Council on Vocational and Technical Education. For the following two decades, Ms. Abell excelled as a principal and assistant principal at various traditional and alternative schools and created seminars and workshops for other professionals in the field. She has been published and has spoken extensively, having also held leadership roles at Gaston College and the South Carolina Vocational Special Needs Division. She is proud to have contributed to research and advocacy that has positively impacted her field.