Citizen of the Week: Adams helps students learn to do hard well

New Fayette County High assistant principal Dr. Courtney Adams is on the move from teaching math at Bennett’s Mill Middle.

Before earning a doctorate in education, she had plans on being a different kind of doctor. Adams grew up in the Bronx but made her way to the south to attend Spelman College on a pre-med track. She was accepted into medical school and started substitute teaching while she waited to start. She found a new direction while substitute teaching.

“I bit the bullet and, before I knew it, I was teaching,” she said. “I think that pause in my life was for me to redirect myself, and I’ve been in education ever since.”

Adams unlocked a passion for helping students reach that “aha moment” where a tricky math concept becomes clear to them.

“I love it. It’s like you can see the lightbulb coming on,” she said.

She’s preaches a classroom motto: We learn to do hard well.

“We work through it. I tell them that I’m never going to give up on them, and I’m never going to allow them to give up on themselves.”

She started her teaching career in South Carolina and was there almost 20 years before coming back to Georgia. She just finished her fourth year at Bennett’s Mill Middle and was a 2026 Fayette County Teacher of the Year Finalist.

“No day is like any other. Everyday there’s going to be something exciting that happens.”

This fall she will be taking on a new challenge as an assistant principal at Fayette County High. Her day-to-day duties will be different, but her mission to have a positive impact on students will stay the same.

“I want to leave this world better than it was when I entered it.”

Do you know a Citizen like Courtney Adams? We’d love for you to nominate them for a future Citizen of the Week.

Anyone in Fayette or Coweta County can nominate a local resident to be featured. Submissions must include between 100 and 500 words explaining why your nominee deserves the spotlight and a photo of them. (Submissions without a photo cannot be accepted.) Fill out the nomination form here:

👉 https://thecitizen.com/nominate-a-citizen-of-the-week/

Each week, one honoree is celebrated in The Citizen, giving us all a chance to recognize the people who enrich our community with their character and care.