PSU professor and filmmaker discovers transformative teacher
Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.)
Aug. 27, 2017
When Duval Elementary School in East Gainesville received an “F” on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in 2002, shock waves jolted the administration, which faced cuts in state funding. That’s when long-time teacher Gloria Jean Merriex radically changed her approach. Along the way, she teamed up with Don Pemberton, director of the Lastinger Center for Learning, and temporarily saved the school before she unexpectedly passed away at age 58. Now Merriex’s story is being retold in “Discovering Gloria,” an upcoming documentary by former Lastinger Center operations manager Boaz Dvir, who now is an assistant professor in the College of Communications at Penn State University.