Valerie Byrd Fort received her B.A. in English Literature in 1999 and her M.L.I.S in 2002, both from the University of South Carolina, making her a Gamecock through and through. While a student at SLIS,
she was awarded the William M. Trafton, III Award for Outstanding Student Leadership.
Valerie has been the Library Media Specialist at Dutch Fork Elementary School in School District Five of
Lexington and Richland Counties for three years. She was the 2005-2006 Teacher of the Year for DFES.
From time to time, Valerie can also be found working in the Children's Room at the Richland County Public Library. She is very active in professional organizations for librarians and educators, including the South Carolina Association for School Librarians, where she serves as Secretary.
Valerie's professional interests are collaboration with classroom teachers, "coaches" (math, literacy,
reading, etc.), parents, and the community; integrating technology into the curriculum; integrating information literacy skills into the
classroom curriculum; advocacy for school library media programs; and encouraging teachers, parents, and students to read for the FUN of it (because, when they know how FUN it is, they will want to do more of it!).
Valerie's personal interests are vast, but include listening to and watching live music (she's married to local musician, Marty Fort); watching and talking about
movies; and attempting to cook (but, mostly just watching professionals cook on FoodTV).