“We provide support, education, and inclusion opportunities to the community, families and individuals with special needs in the South Metro Atlanta area.”
Raissa Chandler - Founder
Raissa Chandler is resilient and resourceful. She’s been a community builder for Autism and disability for over 10 years. She believes that each individual has gifts and abilities that when given, encourage a diverse and strong community. She has a passion and a drive to make sure families of children with disabilities know they are not alone in their journey, and tirelessly works to connect families to each other, to their schools, and to their communities. Raissa is a mother to twins who have gifts of creativity and cup stacking, wife to a husband who excels at knowledge acquisition, and administrative assistant to a marketing Guru. In her spare time, she sleeps.
Patty Gullick - President
Patty Gullick has been involved with Southside for 10 years. Patty’s family moved to Tyrone, GA when her husband, Richard, left the Army to practice neurosurgery in Georgia. Patty has 3 children, Michael 22, Micaela 20 and Maggie who is 16 and attends McIntosh high school. Patty has a B.S. from the University of Maryland in early childhood Special Education. Over the years, she has held various other positions supporting the special needs community. Because 2 of her 3 kiddos have issues with reading her interests in Special Education grew significantly in teaching reading and writing. This interest led to her getting trained in Orton-Gillingham as well as being a strategic learning coach through Dr. Lynda Boucugnani-Whitehead. Patty owns a private tutoring company called, Tutoring with Patty Gullick and works with children with specific learning disabilities of all ages and teaches at The Campus. In her free time, Patty enjoys tennis, volunteering, canoeing, gardening, reading and travelling.
Kit Elliot
Kit has been a lifelong student of wellness. She began her ministry working with children with learning disabilities and behavior disorders. She and her husband have raised 36 children over the course of 26 years. It was while she was working with children in the Autistic spectrum she realized the importance of body work and holistic healing.
She is the chair of the SNAZ committe and is passionate about inclusion and the importance of families doing life and fun as a whole. She loves being out and about in the community looking for new ways and places to facilitate community.
She loves life and enjoys helping others find the joy in health and healthy living! When it's cold outside, you're almost sure to find her enjoying a cup of Earl Grey tea, a cozy fire, and a Jane Austin novel.
Ellie White-Stevens
Ellie White-Stevens, Creative Director and Marketing Guru, has over sixteen years experience in advertising, sales, marketing and corporate communications. Ellie’s special sauce is the ability to think both analytically and creatively at the same time—which gives her clients the best possible marketing outcomes. A Calvin graduate in communications, Ellie worked with non-profits, healthcare and the media on marketing, prior to opening her own agency in 2009. She has helped hundreds of clients with marketing, advertising and public relations campaigns. Her favorite thing to do is to enact effective strategies with her Sustainable Marketing System clients. Ellie was trained to sing opera and is a consummate foodie. She lives in between Newnan and Peachtree City in rural Coweta County, Georgia with her stellar-smart sons and her guitar-wielding husband Matt.
In 2007, I began my Edward Jones career as a financial advisor in Peachtree City. As an Edward Jones financial advisor, I believe it's important to invest my time in understanding what's important to you. Working closely with you, your CPA, attorney and other professionals, I use an established process to help you build personalized strategies to achieve your goals. We will partner together over the long term to keep you on track.
A 1994 graduate of Georgia Tech, I hold a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and I am a 2004 graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, holding an M.S. in management. In addition, I received the CFP® professional designation in 2011.
My family and I have lived in Peachtree City since 2002. I am an adult leader with the Boy Scouts of America.
Mike Martin
Kay McInroe
Kay McInroe is Fayette County’s premier REALTOR. As the 2019 President of the Fayette County Board of REALTORS, Kay leverages her network to be successful, consistently in the top 2% of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices agents worldwide. Kay is a past REALTOR of the Year and past-President of the Women’s Council of REALTORS. Besides serving on the board of Southside Support, Kay also served as the President of the Kiwanis of McIntosh Trail for two years. Kay donates portions of all her commissions to children’s charities.
Marcie Bayne has over 30 years of experience in leadership roles in my employment in both organizational structure, advocacy, education, policy and non-profits. I have a BS degree in business with an emphasis is Public Policy and government. I have owned my own businesses which included fundraising and community relations. My career was spent in labor relations educating members regarding the laws which pertained to them and lobbying on their behalf. Advocating and educating are two of my great motivators. I had many opportunities which allowed me to both serve on boards and hold executive director positions. All of the positions I have held in my career, or community service involved working with and recruiting volunteers. We moved to Georgia two years ago and I have spent most of that time networking to meet people in all phases of the work world. I am very excited to start this new challenge using my talents and gifts for such a role as this.
Marcie Bayne - Executive Director
Bobbylee Wargula - Community Outreach Cordinator
Bobbylee has been actively involved with Southside since 2013. When she is not hosting a coffee or helping support a Special Needs parent, her passion and business is art. She is a photographer, crafter, and does multi-media graphics. Bobbylee feels strongly about supporting and giving back to her community. She volunteers for an Atlanta based street ministry, serves as a host for Girl Talk which is a monthly support group for young women in the community, serves on different committees for Dry Bones Ministry GED prom and of course she is now on the board of Southside Support for Special Needs. In addition to her volunteer work and various businesses, she is a parent of three children with special needs and wants to give back to the community which has supported her over the years. If Bobbylee isn’t busy doing any of the above, you might find her out about in town supporting our local shops.
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OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS