This week we were thrilled to welcome our new manager, M.J. Ziemba to the Achieve Escambia partnership.

M.J. comes to Achieve Escambia with four decades of experience in education. Most recently, she spent 15 years managing the Florida Inclusion Network, where she is most proud of founding the Peer Support Project. The initiative allows typical students to take elective classes that enable them to provide direct support to students with disabilities in general education classes.

“Having happily retired from a career in education, it’s quite by an accident that I find myself back in it,” says M.J. “This is too exciting an opportunity to pass up. Achieve Escambia’s mission matches my personal passions too closely. It was meant to be.”

M.J. and her husband, Rich, are parents of four children and extremely proud grandparents of Emmett, 4, and Waylon, 6, who live in North Carolina.

When not supporting Achieve Escambia’s projects, you can find M.J. in a garden somewhere, a plant store, a swimming pool, or at the public library checking out stacks of books.