Yoder selected as county’s Elementary Support Professional of the Year

Cathy Yoder at Riverton Elementary School has been named Elementary Support Professional of the Year for Madison County Schools. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Cathy Yoder at Riverton Elementary School now has the title of Elementary Support Professional of the Year for Madison County Schools.

With six years at Riverton, Yoder works as registrar and clerical aide. She enrolls and withdraws students, enters attendance, tracks truancy issues, maintains student demographics and generates grade verification reports and report cards.

“I also spend a good bit of the day greeting parents, students and visitors at front desk, answering phones and assisting our administrators, faculty, staff and PTO,” Yoder said.

“Working with a fabulous group of co-workers … and getting to know the children and their families here in this community” are fulfilling factors of her job.

“I moved to the New Market area years ago because I wanted my own children to grow up in the Buckhorn cluster,” she said. Both of Yoder’s children entered kindergarten at Riverton and have since graduated from Buckhorn High School “with a top-notch education and a lot of fond memories,” she said.

Until eighth grade, Yoder lived in Huntsville. “My mother moved my brother and me to the Denver, Colo. area. After graduating from Jefferson High School in 1985, I moved back to Huntsville and have been here ever since,” Yoder said.

She enjoyed living in Colorado but “family roots go back several generations here, and I have always considered Huntsville home,” Yoder said.

She holds an associate degree in travel and tourism and participated in numerous customer service workshops and seminars over the years. Yoder previously worked about 20 years as a corporate travel consultant for local agencies.

Her husband Nathan Yoder is vice president of operations for Clinical Colleagues Inc. Her children are Jordan Givens, 21, a senior at the University of North Alabama, and Austin Givens, 20, a sophomore at Calhoun Community College.

“I enjoy reading, cooking, wine tastings, hiking, travel of all types, the beach and being outdoors tending to my garden and my backyard flock of chickens,” Yoder said.