Executive Director

A.J. Norris is the Executive Director for Pathways Transition Programs. He is responsible for the oversight of the day-to-day operations at Pathways and to ensure the agency maintains compliance with all contracts, grants, and oversight agencies. He serves as the representative for the agency in acquiring and maintaining CARF and ORS accreditation.

Prior to stepping into the role of Executive Director, Mr. Norris worked with the Children's Research Center in Madison, WI as their Program and Development Coordinator. In this position he completed extensive work in researching grants and contracts from the federal government and private foundations aimed at funding evidence-based practices in the arena of public welfare. He also served as the lead development coordinator for a web-based juvenile assessment used to determine the treatment needs of juveniles involved with the justice system. He further worked on the pilot implementation of the assessment with the PACE Center for Girls throughout the state of Florida. He presented the project at conferences in Texas and Washington, D.C. Mr. Norris has trained child welfare and juvenile justice workers in New Jersey on a series of web-based products aimed at addressing the concerns of quality assurance. Additionally, he spent time providing case reviews throughout the California child welfare system as part of a research project aimed at revamping the foster care placement system. He has worked as a Coordinator for Georgia’s Family Connection in Morgan County. His role with Family Connection included the development of programs aimed at assisting adolescent mothers in completing their high school education and continuing towards self-sufficiency.

Mr. Norris also worked to obtain a wide-range of public and private funding to support numerous local projects aimed at at-risk youth within the community including the inception of a PARTNERS in EDUCATION for the entire county school system. He has also worked in Chattanooga, TN with a private non-profit to develop psychoeducational and support programs for women receiving public assistance. His role with that agency included outreach in the public housing communities, facilitating mental health services for women, and coordinating GED programs.

Finally, Mr. Norris spent five years as a classroom teacher in two at-risk middle schools where he was part of several innovative projects including inclusion classrooms that included regular and special education students and facilitated by teams of teachers as well as tracking program where he followed a group of students through three years.