Annie Stutts Joins ECCAC board

Annie Stutts, residing in Santa Rosa Beach with her family, recently became an Emerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center (ECCAC) board member. 

She is a stay-at-home mom raising a 7-year old daughter. In South Walton County, Stutts volunteered with the Treehouse Episcopal Montessori School race committee and also serves on the Children’s Volunteer Health Network board, where her primary focus is in the development of children's mental health division. Working with children is a natural for Stutts with her background in special education and behavioral psychology. 

Stutts graduated with a BA in Communications and a M.Ed in Special Education from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Where she and her husband, Phillip, lived for 16 years before moving to this area 5 1/2 years ago. While in DC, Stutts ran the District’s Autism Program for the entire city, working with PreK to 12th grade students. Then she went on to work with DC’s Early Intervention Program to create and implement a wrap-around behavioral intervention program for children 3 and under.

“Most of my career, as well as my own childhood, included being involved with low income children who have experienced trauma, so my passion for the cause of helping children is endless. I want to work with ECCAC’s mission to end the abuse,” said Stutts.

ECCAC CEO Julie Porterfield commented, “On behalf of ECCAC and our board, we are glad to have Annie on our board, especially with her relevant background. She will certainly be an asset to our efforts of helping children.”

The Emerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center (ECCAC) provides services in a child-friendly environment to help identify, treat and support children in abusive situations. The non-profit organization helps prevent child abuse through education, protects child victims from future abuse, and provides resources to restore the lives of the impacted child and the child’s family. ECCAC serves Okaloosa and Walton counties and houses representatives from the Florida Department of Children and Families, Child Protection Team, State Attorney’s Office, local law enforcement, licensed mental health counselors, and ECCAC’s staff and volunteers. Over the past 18 years, ECCAC has provided more than 60,000 services at no cost to over 12,000 children.