COVINGTON, Ga. — Abigail Morgan Coggin has been appointed to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission by Gov. Brian Kemp, the governor’s office announced Friday afternoon.
Coggin, of Covington, currently serves on the Newton County Schools Board of Education, representing District 5. She was elected to the board in November 2010.
She is a lifelong resident of Newton County. Coggin graduated from Newton County High School in 1992 and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Oxford College and Emory University.
During her college years, Coggin worked as a staff member on many statewide political campaigns and served in the Georgia State Senate’s Public Information Office.
Coggin currently works with the Newton County Arts Association as an operations director.
The Georgia Professional Standards Commission was created by the Georgia General Assembly on July 1, 1991, to assume full responsibility for the preparation, certification, and professional conduct of certified personnel employed in the Georgia public schools, according to the commission’s website.
Commission responsibilities include:
- To simplify and make more efficient the process of certifying educational personnel in Georgia.
- To attract the highest possible number of qualified personnel to become educators in Georgia.
- To promote the hiring of qualified educators from other states to work in Georgia schools.
- To improve the level of preparation of educators, both pre-service and in-service, by requiring for purposes of certification those essential skills and the knowledge needed to deliver effective education.
- To adopt standards of professional performance and a code of professional ethics for educators, both of which shall represent standards of performance and conduct, which are generally accepted by educators of this state.
- To investigate reports of specified criminal conduct, violations of professional or ethical codes of conduct, and violations of certain rules, regulations, and policies by school system educators.
- To enforce the requirement that local school systems promptly report specified criminal conduct of school system educators to the commission.
- To impose disciplinary action or a denial of a certificate against an educator.
