Yvette Foster has served Riverside Middle School as Assistant Principal for four years and Principal for five, maintaining high expectations for academic achievement while leading the successful implementation of a House System. Her leadership on this initiative has created a positive climate and cultural change, promoting engagement and unity among students and faculty by linking faculty and staff with specific students to ensure that every student has an adult advocate. Foster has also spearheaded a school improvement plan that works to close the achievement gap between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers, including a buddy club where students with disabilities are supported by their peers in school social events. She has established and cultivated a STEM culture to raise the rigor and relevance of instruction for all students. In a community partnership with EZGO, a local manufacturing company, students generated ideas for new features on golf carts and collaborated to build prototypes. Riverside was named a Breakout School by the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals in 2013, and a Georgia Lighthouse School to Watch in 2016. Foster serves as PresidentElect of the Georgia Middle School Association and holds a B.A. in English/Communications from Augusta College, a M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from Lesley University, and an Ed.S. in Administration and Leadership from Cambridge University.