Carolyn Vassar Pickett

Carolyn Vassar Pickett is a native Selmian and a product of both the local private and public school systems. She was a 16 year old member of the Senior Class at R.B. Hudson High School in 1965 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in Selma and participated as an activist in the student movement. Carolyn relocated to Chicago, Il and attended private institutions of higher learning for both undergraduate and graduate studies, earning degrees in the field of Education and Urban Studies. During her 30 year residency in Illinois, she taught in both the private and public school systems, then transitioned careers and was employed for a period of time in the Child Welfare sector of the IL Department of Children and Family Services working with biological families, foster families and the Juvenile Court System. Upon her return to Selma, Carolyn gained employment with the Selma City School System and retired after a very rewarding career as a classroom teacher in conjunction with a two-year assignment with the Alabama Department of Education as a School Improvement Specialist. Carolyn is in service as an Americorps VISTA at the Selma Center and describes it as the premier opportunity for her to learn as an adult, the theory of Kingian Nonviolence that she practiced as a youth in 1965.