Dr. Alicia Early, Principal
Education:
- Auburn University, Bachelor’s in Early Childhood Special Education
- Auburn University, Master’s in Early Childhood Special Education
- Auburn University, Master’s in Educational Leadership and Administration
- Auburn University, Education Specialist in Educational Leadership and Administration
- Auburn University, Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration
Certification:
- Educational Leadership
- Elementary Education
- Special Education
Email:
aearly@gsboe.org
Dr. Alicia Early (Dr. E) is a native of Baldwin County. She is married to Marcus Early, Transportation and Safety Coordinator for Gulf Shores City Schools.
Dr. Early went to college at Auburn University (War Eagle!) where she graduated with an undergrad, two master’s, a specialist, and a doctoral degree-all in the field of education. During many of those years, she worked as a special education and general education teacher for Auburn City Schools. In April of 2014, she was hired to be an assistant principal at GSES and served in that capacity the next four school years, before accepting a position as the principal at Robertsdale Elementary in Baldwin County in June of 2018.
During the last three years, she has hired over 140+ individuals and restructured the faculty and staff to better serve the students. Over 20 faculty/staff have been promoted under her leadership during that time. That is something that any good principal welcomes…to see your people excel into something greater and to be a leader who affirms people’s worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.
She rebooted Leader in Me and used it as the schools’ primary operating system. With that reboot, the school became the third elementary school in the county to attain Lighthouse Certification, which meant it was noted that the school received exemplary ratings in the areas of culture, leadership, and academics.
Dr. Early served on the Principal Committee to develop the new grading system for all elementary schools in Baldwin County, as well as the Principal Interview Team for state monitoring. She supported the teachers as they set goals and worked to decrease the number of deficient students having a decrease of 15-20% in most of the grade levels.
She has presented at various conferences, including the most recent which was Leader in Me Symposium, in which she taught schools how to take LIM from floundering to flourishing. In addition, she was featured on the first edition of the Principal’s Edition of LIM Weekly. Principals all over the nation are used to showcase certain aspects of their job as they pertain to Leader in Me.
Her most proud moment over these last three years has been mentoring and having honest conversations in order to shift the culture of a school that had absolutely no trust and needed a tremendous amount of healing. She is looking forward to being back at Gulf Shores Elementary and the many great days ahead for her with Gulf Shores City Schools.
