Deputy Director and Secondary Principal – Dr. Stephanie Chattman
For more than two decades, Dr. Stephanie L. Chattman has dedicated her entire professional career to serving kids, families, and communities. She has made it her personal mission to be a professional educator and to promote personal empowerment, social development, and perpetual progress through the power of education. She believes that education is a continuous journey, that every experience, endeavor, and obstacle that one encounters is an opportunity to enrich one’s understanding of self and to gain additional knowledge. Education isn’t just her profession, it’s her passion, her mission, and her mechanism to help make the world a better place.
Her career began in her native state of Alabama where she served as a social worker assisting families in ways that improved their lives through training, housing, and financial assistance. The driving force behind every decision that she made was the question, “what is best for the children.” She knew that one of the best things she could do for children was to ensure that they received a quality education. That idea led her to pursue a career as an educator. Although she understood her dedication to transforming lives required her to be more than a teacher but rather she became proficient at the art of education and a professional educator.
After obtaining a teaching position in Georgia, she and her family relocated there. Dr. Chattman began her teaching career as a Special Education teacher that focused on inclusive practices. This is an ideal that she continues throughout her practice now. While she taught in an elementary school in Dekalb County School District, she continued to pursue her own professional growth. She took every opportunity to acquire additional certifications, professional development, and valuable experience all while eventually obtaining her masters, specialist, and doctoral degrees in Educational Leadership. Her drive, her passion, and her personal pursuit of excellence was quickly recognized by her peers who voted her Teacher of the Year after only briefly becoming a teacher. Her commitment to serving students, working collaboratively with coworkers, and dedication to the community made her a valuable asset within the district.
Dr. Chattman was chosen to serve in several areas while teaching including curriculum designer, professional learning facilitator, and director of the after school program. Soon thereafter, she was appointed Assistant Principal of Laurel Ridge Elementary, where she served, thrived, and helped improve the performance of the school for three years. Under her guidance, the administration established a culture of inclusion, increased students’ performance, and empowered the staff to reach their full potential. Due to the successes that she was able to achieve at Laurel Ridge she was appointed Principal at Evansdale Elementary. At Evansdale, she was responsible for 600 students, 81 staff members, and another opportunity to make a substantial impact in the lives of students.
Dr. Chattman alongside her team was able to transform Evansdale Elementary into one of the highest performing schools in one of the largest school districts in Georgia. Recognizing and celebrating the diversity of the student population, several programs were implemented in order to meet the individual needs of students. She developed one of the first dual-language programs in Georgia, implemented a STEM program, which then led to an AdvancED STEM certification. Dr. Chattman’s efforts led to a significant increase on the state report card index and Evansdale became a Title I Reward School as well as becoming the first STEM-French Immersion school in the country.
Dr. Chattman has been a part of the leadership team at the Universal American School of Dubai since 2018 as Elementary Principal. Her accomplishments over the past couple of years were recognized and she has recently been given an additional role of Deputy Director. She is committed to the relentless pursuit of the vision of UAS to become the leading American International school in the region. Dr. Chattman has been deeply involved in developing the secondary school and overseeing whole-school teaching and learning. She has also been integral to creating enriching opportunities for our secondary students’ American high school track through the introduction of the AP Capstone Diploma. Dr. Chattman is committed to the relentless pursuit of the vision of UAS to being the leading American International school in the region.