Melody Hackney Ed.D.

Dr. Melody D. Hackney, Superintendent of Hopewell City Schools, was named Virginia’s Superintendent of the Year in 2021.  As the chief education leader of her small impoverished school division, Dr. Hackney faced many challenges from the start of her service as Hopewell’s superintendent. The school division’s culture of having low expectations for its students, students’ negative attitudes toward school, and a poor track record of only one accredited school and stagnant SOL test scores were just a few of the problems she faced. In order to turn Hopewell’s situation around, Dr. Hackney focused her students and staff members on three things: what was being taught and how; keeping what was working and eliminating what was not; and creating success by providing students with new opportunities and experiences.  The strategy that proved most effective was to provide real-life experiences for her students so that they could see the connections between the knowledge and skills they were learning and how they were being applied.