Executive Director
A.J. Norris is the Executive Director for New Learning Center. He is responsible for the oversight of
the day-to-day operations at New Learning Center and ensures the agency maintains compliance with all contracts, grants, and oversight agencies.
He serves as the representative for the agency in acquiring and maintaining CARF and ORS accreditation.
Prior to stepping into the role of Executive Director, Mr. Norris worked with the Children's Research Center in Madison,
WI as their Program and Development Coordinator. In this position he completed extensive work in researching grants
and contracts from the federal government and private foundations aimed at funding evidence-based practices in the arena
of public welfare. He also served as the lead development coordinator for a web-based juvenile assessment used to determine
the treatment needs of juveniles involved with the justice system. He further worked on the pilot implementation of
the assessment with the PACE Center for Girls throughout the state of Florida. He presented the project at conferences
in Texas and Washington, D.C. Mr. Norris has trained child welfare and juvenile justice workers in New Jersey on a series of
web-based products aimed at addressing the concerns of quality assurance. Additionally, he spent time providing case reviews
throughout the California child welfare system as part of a research project aimed at revamping the foster care placement system.
He has worked as a Coordinator for Georgia's Family Connection in Morgan County. His role with Family Connection included the
development of programs aimed at assisting adolescent mothers in completing their high school education and continuing towards
self-sufficiency.
Mr. Norris also worked to obtain a wide-range of public and private funding to support numerous local projects aimed
at at-risk youth within the community including the inception of a Partners In Education
for the entire county school system. He has also worked in Chattanooga, TN with a private non-profit to develop psycho educational
and support programs for women receiving public assistance. His role with that agency included outreach in the public housing communities,
facilitating mental health services for women, and coordinating GED programs.
Finally, Mr. Norris spent five years as a classroom teacher in two at-risk middle schools where he was part of several innovative projects
including inclusion classrooms that included regular and special education students and facilitated by teams of teachers as well as tracking
program where he followed a group of students through three years.