LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Dr. Myrtis Brightharp-Walker was nominated by a colleague, Beulah McClattie.

Dr. Brightharp-Walker is a LifeChanger who has devoted 46 years to education. During the first half of her career, she served as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal. Then when schools throughout the state needed strong leadership to help redirect their path to improvement, she served as a principal specialist and principal leader for the State Department of Education in high-poverty schools that were very much in need. She served twice as principal of two schools at once. Additionally, she has served as Assistant Superintendent for Instruction. She devoted much of her time to grant writing to provide programs and equipment needed in the schools she served.

At 61 years of age, when most educators retire, she began planning and writing a curriculum for a free public charter school focusing on STEM and Leadership. Bettis Preparatory Leadership Academy was chartered in 2017 and opened in 2018 with Dr. Walker as its founder and first principal. The school celebrated its fifth anniversary in April 2023.

The parents insist that it is the best-kept secret in the CSRA. Class sizes are 15 and under, and the school has grown from a K-5 school to a K-8 school, with the first 8th-grade completion class in May 2022. Students are here by choice. They are focused and taught good character. Bettis Preparatory Leadership Academy did not close during the years of the pandemic due to Dr. Walker's planning for safety and the relationship with parents regarding safety.

"We just celebrated Dr. Walker's intention to retire," said McClattie. "We affectionately call her 'The Legend,' because of her passion for teaching and learning and the execution of programs and practices for instruction. Her school leadership and operation skills are her strongest assets. Whatever the school needs, she finds a way to make it happen!"