Gia Paige Named Director of Community Engagement
and Implementation for Helping Education
From Staff Reports
(June 28, 2023)
Effective June 28, 2023, Gia Paige has been named Director of Community Engagement and Implementation for Helping Education. Paige joined the organization in April of 2021 and has most recently served as the Senior Project Director for HELPS Programming in our Charlotte office.
“I am pleased to name Gia Paige as the Director of Community Engagement and Implementation,” said William D. Gibson, President & Chief Executive Officer for Helping Education. “This is a new pilot position in our Charlotte region that is in direct response to learnings. We believe it will help improve our ability to serve more students by strategically collaborating with our partners at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to increase student enrollment with tutors and improve our program implementation,” continued Gibson.
The Director of Community Engagement and Implementation role is a new position set initially within our Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) and designed to strengthen our support and collaboration. The new role is intended to act as a liaison between local communities and schools and to help assist parents, caregivers, administrators, and teachers assess and enroll more students in tutoring initiatives that can improve learning outcomes. The pilot position will also reinforce our organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the importance of deep listening within the neighborhoods and communities we serve to inform best practices.
“We want to continue to be a strong partner to CMS and adjust our support based on the learnings over the previous school year,” continued Gibson. “By leveraging evidence-based strategies we know that implementation science focuses on bridging the gap between research and practice, ensuring effective and sustainable implementation of education interventions. The more we can apply our learnings within the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region, the more students we can support. That is our commitment to both the school system and to the parents and students we serve.” said Gibson.
Implementation science is a valuable framework for successfully introducing and integrating learning interventions within schools. It is an approach that involves careful planning, executing, and evaluating the implementation process, considering key factors such as the characteristics of the intervention, the readiness of the community, and the support and training of educators.
“I believe Gia is perfectly suited for this new pilot position, because of her ability to listen, build relationships, and help to solve problems in real-time,” continued Gibson. “Her commitment to equity, her ability to listen, and her compassion for students and families makes for a solid foundation for what we believe can improve our collaborative approach to serve more students and help improve accessibility and learning outcomes,” said Gibson.
Paige is a staunch advocate for communities across Charlotte, North Carolina, and uses her passion for community to impact justice through education initiatives. For over 20 years, she has worked in the education space in the administrative offices as well as in schools in her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland and in the city, she has called home for over 12 years, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mrs. Paige, as she is known to students, parents, and colleagues across Charlotte, is a graduate of the Charlotte Civic Leadership Academy where she expanded her leadership capacity by participating in a three-month intensive leadership experience that prepares citizens to pursue leadership opportunities from public office to grassroots advocacy.
“Our hope is that continued learnings within the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region will inform how we are able to move this position from a pilot, in order to help improve our collaborative efforts across other regions and communities we serve as an organization, and I am excited for Gia’s leadership in this strategic effort,” concluded Gibson.