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Stepping Stones Early Learning Center in Knoxville has a new director.

Keri Garrison takes over after being co-interim director since June. She says the support from the parents means a lot to the success of the center.

“Some might think I’m just dropping my child off and their safe,” Garrison recently said in an interview with KNIA/KRLS News. “But when they pick them up, they know they’ve learned something. They bring that stuff home. So, I think that they really get that sense of partnership that we’re part of their family and they’re part of ours.”

Garrison has been a part of Stepping Stones for 20 years. She takes over longtime director Pam Mahoney, who founded the center back in 1982 when it was the VA Child Care Center.

Mahoney accepted a position with the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children, where she will be working to help child care center staff go back to school through the T.E.A.C.H program.