Wednesday, April 23, 2025
4:30 pm, Student Union Theatre
ANNUAL FREE PUBLIC LECTURE
for students, faculty, and community
From the Schoolhouse to the White House: My Leadership Journey
D. Natasha Scott, EdD, MSW
Executive Director of Student Services for
Cumberland County Schools, Fayetteville, NC
Dr. Scott has 27 years of experience in public and social work education. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in social work, she dreamed of becoming a school social worker. Over the years, she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees, and she worked her way up from social work intern to executive director. Not surprisingly, she encountered challenges along the way. From interdisciplinary collaboration to developing a common language, intentionality, and more, Dr. Scott describes how these early lessons helped her succeed as a social work administrator in the field of public education.
About the Paris Endowed Lecture Series
The Paris Lecture Series is made possible through a gift from Dr. John Viehe.
Dr. Viehe has taught at Campbell University for many years after a distinguished career in Military Intelligence. He earned his Ed.D. from North Carolina State University.
The lecture series is in honor of his mother, Ethel Paris Viehe, and aunts, Florence Edith Paris and Cora Paris Hagen.
The Paris Sisters
The Paris sisters were exemplars in the field of education, examples for current students to emulate. Each was born in the city of Buffalo, New York and remained in education long enough to retire and earn a pension. When they entered the field, most teachers were prepared solely at two-year normal schools. Some obtained additional higher education. Among New York State’s major cities, Buffalo had the highest proportion of teachers with no formal education beyond normal school.
However, the Paris Sisters did not follow this trend. Each graduated from Buffalo Normal School (now SUNY Buffalo State College) and then earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Buffalo (now the State University of New York at Buffalo). Subsequently, each of the sisters earned a master’s degree from an Ivy League University.
Firstborn Florence also acquired a Principal’s Certificate and became the youngest and first female principal in the Buffalo School System. She served as principal of Buffalo, New York Public School 65 for 47 years.
Cora, the middle sister, later attended Colorado School of Mines and developed a solid understanding of earth science. During World War II, she stepped forward to support the war effort by teaching science courses, including meteorology, to pilots, enabling the opening of an airplane factory which produced over a thousand lend-lease fighter planes.
Ethel had the misfortune of being widowed with four children under the age of 11; she immediately returned to teaching and became Chairman of the Science department at Hamburg, New York High School. She was awarded three National Science Foundation grants to study specialized advanced topics. She imparted the importance of education to her four, each of whom subsequently earned a doctoral degree.
Past Paris Lectures
