For generations of aspiring educators, the late Joyce Swarzman was far more than an
administrator. During her 15-year tenure as
director of the SunCoast Area Teacher Training Program (SCATT) at USF’s College of
Education, she inspired future teachers not only through her words, but through the
example she set every day.
Pictured from left to right: Marcia Mann, Director of SCATT; William Katzenmeyer, Dean of the College of Education; Ralph D. Turlington, Florida Commissioner of Education; and Joyce Swarzman, Assistant Director of SCATT, at reception for graduating SCATT students, circa 1981.
Those who worked alongside Swarzman remember a leader whose greatest strength was her own commitment to lifelong learning. During professional development workshops, she rarely sought the spotlight. Instead, after introducing a guest speaker, she quietly moved to the back of the room with a notebook in hand.
“If there was learning happening, Joyce wanted to be there,” Mark Thompson, former SCATT member and now an educator of more than 30 years, recalled. “She always modeled learning, because she believed that no matter how advanced you are in your career or how many years you’ve been doing it, there is always more to be learned.”
Swarzman’s own teaching style was showing, not telling. Rather than making a point of demonstrating leadership, Swarzman simply lived it.
She wasn’t waving a banner saying, ‘Look at me, I’m being a role model,’” Thompson said. “She was just doing it. Thankfully, I noticed, and I try to model that for my own students today.”
According to Thompson, who served as a student assistant in the SCATT office and later became a colleague and collaborator until Swarzman’s death in 2023, she challenged students to embrace their calling with confidence. She urged them never to downplay their chosen profession when asked what they were studying in college.
Joyce Swarzman, Director of SCATT and SCATT student Mary Williams.
“She always told us to be ‘a teacher with a capital T,’” Thompson recalled. “She wanted us to be proud of our chosen profession.”
Her personality was as unforgettable as her philosophy.
“She had kind of a Paul Bunyan quality about her,” Thompson said. “When you hear stories about Joyce, you think maybe they’ve grown into legend over the years. But no, she really was every bit that big. When you meet people, you can usually think, ‘This person reminds me of someone else.’ Not Joyce. There was only one Joyce.”
Even after her passing in 2023, Swarzman is credited with transforming SCATT from a promising concept into a thriving program that inspired many educators who have carried her lessons into their own classrooms.
“Like a lot of programs, you start with an idea,” Thompson said. “Then you throw gasoline on it, and it bursts into flame. Joyce was the gasoline.”