Debra White - UI&U Alum

On paper, Debra White is known as a school resource officer with the Broward County Sheriff’s office.

A current learner in Union’s Ed.D. Program, Debra White recently celebrated the completion of her M.Ed. at UI&U’s 2010 National Commencement ceremony—after finishing her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from UI&U in 2007. A lifelong learner, the common thread that runs through her education is simple: service to others.

For the past 17 years, Debra has worked at South Fort Lauderdale inner city middle schools, mentoring some of the area’s most underserved youth. Her aim is to keep them from becoming delinquent and to help them stay focused on their future.

“It’s important for them to see that someone cares about them—someone who doesn’t have to,” said Debra. “When they see that someone believes in them – and it’s not just temporary – it fills them with a sense of hope and gives them a reason to be confident in their future.”

As part of her job, Debra serves as a mediator between students and their peers, school staff, and their teachers. She also conducts interviews with parents. But she’s also been known to use her own money to buy prom dresses and to fund field trips. “I’ve lived by the phrases, ‘action speaks louder than words,’ and ‘love is what it does,’ so showering students with love and support are the first steps in helping them travel in the direction of their destiny.”

The inspiration, it seems, goes full circle. In fact, it was Debra’s students who instilled in her the desire to pursue her own education. When she began serving as a school resource officer, she lacked a college degree, and she found herself growing increasingly uncomfortable urging her students to further their education when she hadn’t finished her own.

“I felt like I was double-minded, as if I wasn’t living up to my own expectations,” says Debra. And so, when a representative from UI&U’s Florida Center visited school resource officers to discuss Union’s undergraduate degree programs, Debra knew she had found the ideal opportunity to return to school.

She credits her advisor Lawrence Hibbert, director of the Florida Center’s Criminal Justice Program, for encouraging her to pursue her master’s in education once she completed her B.S. in criminal justice. “He showed me that I had much more to offer the world,” says Debra, who saw the M.Ed. program as a perfect complement to her criminal justice degree and a way to enhance her career as a school resource officer.

“What I loved about the M.Ed. program was the opportunity to explore different learning styles, theories, and mindsets so that I could become equipped to handle whatever predicament my students find themselves in,” says Debra. “I’ve always been a compassionate person, but the program taught me how to channel my compassion into action.”

Just as Lawrence Hibbert had supported Debra as an undergraduate, Dr. Beryl Watnick, dean of the Florida Center, guided Debra as a graduate learner: Once again she was encouraged to move forward in her education.

“Dr. Watnick believed in me and thought that I would succeed in the Ed.D. program,” says Debra, who began her doctoral studies in July. “And with my background in law enforcement, I’m excited to bring a new perspective to the program.”

For now, Debra has no plans to leave her position as a school resource officer – not even after she becomes Dr. Debra White.  But in May of 2015, she’ll end her era as a law enforcement officer with the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

During the next five years, her goal is to “nullify the prediction professing that youth who fail to pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) by the third grade are destined to a life of crime and incarceration. I plan to accomplish this task by speaking life into my students.”

“I will continue being their beacon of light in a dark world, showing them avenues that will be beneficial to fulfilling their purpose in life, encouraging them to write their visions, and to see themselves at the point of success,” continues Debra. “I want to cancel out the name society has attached to this generation. No more will they be identified as Generation X but recognized as a generation that is noble, true, successful, and pure.”

UI&U is honored to feature Debra as an alumna, current learner, mentor, and educator during our 2011 Black History Month celebration. Her continued work in the field of education will not only inspire youth, but challenge them to engage in their communities and seek positive change.