Perry Dillard (’99) has spent nearly 20 years educating children in Alabama schools and he is now serving as the Alabama Association of Secondary School Principals AASSP District II President.
As a Faulkner University graduate, Dillard returned to his alma mater this February to speak to current students during the Homecoming Weekend’s Marketplace Faith Friday Forums where he was honored as the College of Education‘s Distinguished Alumnus.
Reared in Andalusia, Ala. Dillard began his educational journey at Faulkner University where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Social Studies in the 1999.
“I loved my years at Faulkner,” Dillard said. “I really got involved and worked as a student ambassador, which allowed me to go all over representing Faulkner including summer camps and youth rallies.”
“It was a great experience and met some of my closest friends, who I still keep in contact with. I had great teachers like the Hicks who began taking students on trips to Virginia and Washington D.C. when I started coming to Faulkner. I could not have had better instructors in education and history. I was very blessed.”
After graduation, he taught at Alabama Christian Academy. In 2001, he was awarded the James Madison Foundation Fellowship. This opportunity allowed him to complete a Master’s in Education with an emphasis in history at Troy University.
That same year, Dillard had the opportunity to teach at Pleasant Home School, a small school south of Andalusia. In 2005, he returned to Andalusia High School and eight years later, he was selected as the Andalusia Area Chamber of Commerce High School Teacher of the Year.
He graduated from Troy University in 2014 with a second Master’s in Educational Leadership. That fall, Dillard became the Assistant Principal at Dale County High School. Two years later, he completed the requirements for his Ph.D. in Administration of Elementary & Secondary Education at Auburn University and is currently serving as the President of AASSP District II.
Perry and his wife Stephanie, who he met at Faulkner, live in Enterprise, Al. Together, they have two daughters, Elizabeth who is three and Ellie who was born in November.