BY CYNTHIA ADAMS PHOTOS BY NANCY EVElYN
LAURA BOHNHOff WHITAkER
Whitaker’s son has frequently come to work with her since the beginning of his life. Whitaker says he does not perceive disabilities at all. “Owen doesn’t see a difference.”
laura Bohnhoff Whitaker (BS '`07, MEd '10) strides into a Starbucks in downtown Athens, Ga., bouncing a toddler on her hip. “I want juice,” the boy cries in a voice that threatens to ratchet upward in decibels. He pleadingly points to various drinks, all colorfully displayed near the register. Whitaker nudges Owen, her son, towards the milk. She calms him with a soft word, popping a straw into the milk box. With a tyke in tow, Whitaker might be confused as a babysitting undergraduate. With long blonde-hair, blue-eyed and slim, wearing jeans and dangling earrings, she looks the role. But this is not the case. laura Whitaker, age 27, is the executive director of Extra Special People, or ESP, in Watkinsville, Ga. She knows how to make children—her own as well as others—tranquil. “laura brings a unique perspective because she was a counselor at ESP,” explains leslie Hale, the ESP public relations maven. Hale is a youthful-looking, red-haired UGA graduate student shifting careers. (She is a former reporter from Naples, fla.) Observing the signs of an industry in crisis, she moved to Athens with her journalist husband and entered the UGA Graduate School. Now, Hale is reinventing herself as a public administrator. She is interested in learning about social justice
UGA Graduate School Magazine f A l l 2 012
3