Marian Loftin, MEd

Marian Loftin served 6 years as Director of the State of Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, which oversees the Children’s Trust Fund of Alabama (CTF) funding over 200 community-based prevention programs statewide. After 17 years as an elementary classroom teacher, Mrs. Loftin worked in external affairs and government relations for the University of Alabama for 15 years.  Prior to her appointment to CTF, she was Executive Director of the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce.

Mrs. Loftin has long been actively involved in child and family advocacy.  She served on the founding board of the Alfred Saliba Family Services Center of Dothan, the first “one-stop” for human services in the state.  She was co-founder of the Southeast Alabama Child Advocacy Center.  In 2004, Alabama Governor Bob Riley appointed her to his Task Force to Strengthen Alabama Families.

Mrs. Loftin, a Rotarian (first woman inducted into the Dothan-Houston County Rotary Club) and a Paul Harris Fellow, has served on numerous community, state and national  boards such as VOICES for Alabama’s Children; the Alabama Partnership for Children; the A+ Education Foundation; the Children First Alliance of Alabama;  the Alabama Network of Family Resource Centers; Alabama Citizens for Constitution Reform Board of Directors; the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation Board and the Board of Directors of the National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds.

Due to her civic involvement, Mrs. Loftin was selected to run as Olympic Torchbearer in the 1996 Olympics when the route of the Torch passed through her hometown of Dothan. She was named to Leadership Alabama in 2002.

Mrs. Loftin received the National Health and Human Services Commissioner’s Award in 2007 for her work in Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention for the State of Alabama.  In 2009, she was the first recipient of the Alabama Child Champion Lifetime Achievement Award.  The Award, which is given annually, now bears her name. She is a recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Alabama Council on Community-Based Partnerships and serves on the College of Education Board of Advisors as well as the Capstone College of Education Society Board. She is a member of the University of Alabama Women of the Capstone.

An Alabama native, she holds a BS in Education from the University of Alabama (named the Distinguished Alumna in 1988) and a MA in Education/Reading from Troy University Dothan (named the Outstanding Alumna in 1993).  She is a graduate of John Carroll High School in Birmingham (recognized as Outstanding Alumna 2002).