DAFVM Spotlight Employee: Tiffany Valentine
Helping people has been a natural instinct for Tiffany Valentine since she was a little girl.
Valentine is the oldest of eight children, which prepared her for her career.
“Growing up, I always helped take care of my siblings,” she said. “My nurturing personality helped me with my siblings growing up and is continuing to help me in my career.”
Valentine is a program specialist for the Early Years Network, a program of the Mississippi State University Extension Service and part of the School of Human Sciences. She provides infant and toddler assessments for new moms.
Valentine said her favorite part of the job is helping the families enrolled in the parenting program.
“I love assisting a family with their new baby,” she said. “I enjoy seeing how much they learn from the lessons we teach them.”
Seeing the gratitude on the faces of new moms and dads brings Valentine a special appreciation for her job.
“The resources and the lessons we implement to families help them out immensely,” she said. “We receive a lot of feedback from the new families telling us how successful our programs are and how much they helped them with their newborns. They are so thankful to have received the help that we provided them, which makes my job all the more worthwhile.”
Before coming to MSU, she worked as a preschool teacher for Head Start in Flora, Mississippi, and as a parent educator for Healthy Homes Mississippi.
In her spare time, Valentine enjoys spending time with her husband, Curly, and her daughter, Almia, 12. She also enjoys shopping. Valentine loves helping people in her community as much as she does at her job. She is PTA president and athletic director of a little league football team. She is also a member of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.
Editor's note: The Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine Spotlight Employee profiles are provided by the Office of Agricultural Communications at Mississippi State. For more information, please click here.
