Dr. Taja Welch

Dr. Taja M. Welch is a Pre-K-3 teacher at Fair Garden Early
Learning Center. She has taught preschool for 5 years and
has taught at Fair Garden for the last 3 years. Prior to
teaching at Fair Garden, she taught 1st grade at Sunny View
Primary, and private Pre-K at Garden Of Discovery Learning
Center, housed in Mount Olive Baptist Church. Dr. Welch
has been with Knox County Schools since 2006. She
received both her MS degree in Curriculum and Instruction
and her EdD in Curriculum and Instruction and
Educational Leadership from Lincoln Memorial University
in 2011 and 2016, respectively.

Dr. Welch's research interests include Student Learning
Styles and investigating how African American Single
Mothers' Perceptions affect the education of their
preschool-age children. She has presented her research at
LMU's 1st Annual Research Day in 2016 as well as several
research presentations for the undergraduate classes of
her dissertation chair. Most recently, Dr. Welch was asked
to participate as a presenter in a series of panel
discussions entitled Courageous Conversations sponsored
by LMU with her mother Dr. Olga M. Welch, Professor and
Dean Emerita, School of Education, Duquesne University,
Pittsburgh, PA. For 2 years, she has been involved with the
CRRAFT program and had a project funded by Donor's
Choose. Over 10 ten years, she has also provided private
tutoring to elementary and middle school students in
language arts as well as students with learning disabilities
in language and mathematics.