KSN&C has learned that KDE Associate Commissioner Johnnie Grissom has gone through a tough patch with her health recently and is taking some time to recover this summer.
Grissom has been serving as associate commissioner for the Office of Special Instructional Services since 1993. In that capacity she leads three KDE divisions: Career & Technical Education, Federal Programs and Instructional Equity and Exceptional Children Services, which is responsible for the Hearing & Visually Impaired Collaborative Team, the Kentucky School for the Blind and Kentucky School for the Deaf.
Grissom is one of KDE's key contacts for the federal No Child Left Behind Act and for federal programs. Two of her programs (Title I & IDEA) are in line for an infusion of federal ARRA funds. KDE spokesperson Lisa Gross confirmed,
Kentucky has received notices of allocations for Title I and IDEA. Schools will get an additional $150 million in Title I funds and $166 million in IDEA funds.
As one KSN&C reader recently shared:
She is a wonderfully inspirational woman from North Carolina recruited by Tom Boysen, who has a Clarence Thomas – African American rural south background that gives me goose pimples. She’s been overseeing KDE’s achievement gap efforts for years, and is a bright, lovely, truth-telling moral center and an indefatigable activist.
Grissom came to Kentucky from North Carolina where she served in several positions within the NC Department of Public Instruction. She resides in Frankfort with her husband Norman.
KSN&C wishes Grissom a speedy recovery.
At the June 10-11 meeting, the Kentucky Board of Education announced the creation of the "Dr. Johnnie Grissom Award -- Striving for Achievement Through Instructional Equity". 
