- Conservative Educator
- 30 Years as Teacher, Principal and Superintendent
- Nationally Published in Education
- Award Winner for Service to Brevard Students
About Barbara: Profile of an Educator
Barbara Murray was born into a middle class family in the conservative town of Richmond, Indiana. Her parents were hard-working people -- her father at his own heating and air-conditioning business and her mother, the office manager for that business and a part-time substitute teacher. Barbara has only one sibling, a sister who is also a teacher. In addition, Barbara has a niece who is a teacher whose husband is also a teacher and a nephew who is a mechanical engineer.
In school Barb did well, was an officer in student government and excelled in music, art and athletics. She was selected from a class of more than 700 students as one of two recipients of the American Legion Outstanding Senior Girl Award. Even though a golfing scholarship was on the horizon at other universities, she chose to attend Ball State University for her undergraduate work because of its superb reputation as a teachers' college. Before graduating with her degree in Health Science and Physical Education she was offered several teaching positions which was not the norm in those days. Today teachers are difficult to find but not so in 1973. Barbara taught elementary school for five years before moving to teach high school in the same district for five additional years. During that time she attended evening classes, earned her Master of Arts in Education Degree and met her future husband, Ken Murray.
Barbara became interested in educational leadership and continued in her evening classes to earn her Educational Specialist Degree from Indiana University. She was named as a Doctoral Fellow at Indiana State University and a year later began her distinguished career in school administration by accepting an assistant principalship at a Junior-Senior High School just west of Indianapolis. After two years in that position and completing her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership she was promoted to the principalship of that same school. As principal, Barbara took the low-performing school to state-level prominence in academics by winning the Indiana State Academic Super Bowl with her academic competition team.
Some time later Barbara accepted a position as principal of a high school in northern Indiana where she distinguished herself such that a neighboring school district offered her the position of Superintendent of Schools. Serving in that position in the late-1980's, Barbara was one of a very few select female superintendents in the entire United States.
In order to accommodate her husband's move to the University of Central Florida in 1990, Barbara became the principal of Ormond Beach Middle School where she was the recipient of the Volusia/Flagler Counties School Guidance Counselor's Association Principal of the Year Award for her child centered leadership style. Shortly thereafter Barbara accepted a faculty position in Education at UCF where she continues to teach and prepare teachers and school administrators.
She has written myriad articles concerning schools, teaching and educational leadership and has been published by the National School Board Association, the National Education Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the American Association of School Administrators. In addition, she also has co-authored several books for educators including Pitfalls and Potholes: A Checklist for Avoiding Common Mistakes of Beginning Teachers, School Law for the Florida Educator, now in Forth Edition and the Survival Guide for the Florida Teacher, Third Edition.
Her most recent work includes establishing, and serving as the director of, the C.A.R.E. To Read program, an all-volunteer program utilizing registered therapy dogs to motivate at-risk children to read and learn better in school. Her C.A.RE. To Read volunteers have helped hundreds of students over the years and now serve a number of schools with individual student and group tutoring throughout Brevard County. For her work with the C.A.R.E. To Read program, Barbara Murray was awarded the Florida Governor's Points of Light Award.
While volunteering in Brevard County Schools, Barbara realized first-hand the problems experienced by local teachers and school leaders and decided that she could do more to help the students of Brevard County. As a member of the Brevard County School Board with her experience and expertise in education, Barbara Murray will continue to work to improve the quality of
education for all students in the Brevard County Public Schools.