Angela Morrison, the Lafayette Parish School System's new director of community collaborations and partnerships, is a familiar face in Lafayette's civic engagement scene, having most recently served as the chief of community impact for the United Way of Acadiana. The Lafayette Parish School System's new director of community collaborations and partnerships is bringing decades of experience in Lafayette's non-profit and civic engagement scene to central office.
Angela Morrison, the former chief of community impact for the United Way of Acadiana, has spent the past 20 years working for a number of well-known local nonprofits and public agencies, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, the UL Lafayette Alumni Association and Lafayette Consolidated Government. In addition to her professional background in community engagement, Morrison is also a former Junior League of Lafayette president and is actively involved in the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
Now, Morrison's new role will be serving as the community's "point of entry" into the school system to better facilitate strategic partnerships and community collaborations, all of which are key components of Superintendent Pat Cooper's "100% In, 100% Out" district turnaround plan.
"Dr. Cooper's turnaround plan is something we've needed for so long, and one of the key strategies is community support. I think I've been preparing for this position my whole professional life," Morrison says. "Since I started with Big Brothers Big Sisters in the early 90s, I've been connecting the community to what they really care about. It's great to see how far we've come and how progressive we are. But when our school system is rated the way it's been rated, that's not indicative of progress. We have a new superintendent who's ready to bring us to the top. I'm happy to be a part of that."
Since starting with LPSS in mid-July, Morrison has also been a key school system point of contact for media outlets, a job that was once held by former LPSS Marketing Director Angie Simoneaux. Simoneaux resigned from the school system in April.
"My motivation was to be able to have some influence here in regards to education outcomes," Morrison says. "As Dr. Cooper says, children are waiting."