Suzanne Bailey When Jackson Academy students return for classes this fall they will see a new face occupying the headmaster’s office.

Local attorney Suzanne Bailey was recently chosen to take over as headmaster. She said she hopes her past experience as an educator coupled with her years practicing law will help her in problem solving and providing a quality education for students at the school.

Bailey earned a Bachelors Degree in home economics in 1985 from the University of Alabama. In 1990, she earned a Masters Degree in elementary education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

From 1989-1990 she taught sixth grade social studies and electives in the Birmingham Public Schools System. From 1993- 1999 she taught third grade in the Fort Payne City Schools System. From 1999-2000, she taught fifth grade social studies and English in the Clinton Public Schools System in Clinton, Miss.

While in Mississippi, Bailey followed her longtime dream to practice law and returned to college at Mississippi School of Law in¸ Jackson, Miss., where she earned a Juris Doctorate Law Degree in 2003. She passed the Alabama State Bar Exam in September of that year. Since that time her career as an attorney has encompassed family law, criminal law, civil litigation and local government law.

Prior to marrying local attorney and Jackson Municipal Judge Chris Bailey and relocating to Jackson in 2010, Bailey practiced law for seven years in her hometown of Fort Payne with the law firm of Watson & Gillis, P.C. In Jackson, she opened a law practice, which she is closing to take over the headmaster position at Jackson Academy.

“As the new headmaster at Jackson Academy, I am looking to take the set of problem solving skills I developed as an attorney and combine them successfuly with the skills of conveying thoughts and ideas I developed as a teacher and have something good come out of it that will benefit the students and their parents,” said Bailey. “Chris is a graduate of Jackson Academy and always spoke of how he loved it there. The school encompasses a family environment, due in large part that it is a volunteer organization and people want to send their child there.

“As headmaster, my goals are for strong academics, student involvement and participation. I want to mesh together what the students and their parents desire into a system that best facilitates what students want to achieve.”

Bailey said she believes the areas of law and education have something in common in that people who choose either field are usually answering a calling within themselves. “I feel because I had a calling for both, I am well prepared to meet the demands and goals that are ahead,” she said.