The 2022 Teacher of the Year in Muscogee County will be one of these 10 semifinalists
The 2022 Teacher of the Year in the Muscogee County School District will be one of these 10 semifinalists:
- Gena Davis, Dimon Magnet Academy, K-5 special education
- Vanessa Ellis, Veterans Memorial Middle School, eighth-grade social studies
- Maureen Girard, Double Churches Elementary School, music
- Taliah Hassan, Rigdon Road Elementary School, fifth-grade reading and English language arts
- Shea Lindblad, Britt David Magnet Academy, fifth-grade English Language Arts
- Andrea McCarthy, Richards Middle School, seventh-grade English language arts
- Melissa McCormick, Carver High School, biology
- Danielle McCoy, Columbus High School, health
- Steven Ring, Allen Elementary School, fourth-grade math
- Heather White, Aaron Cohn Middle School, sixth-grade math and English language arts.
The Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation, which conducts MCSD’s Teacher of the Year program, announced the semifinalists Wednesday. They were selected from the applications of the 52 nominees, who were designated by their school’s staff.
The nominees were announced in January during a ceremony in Legacy Hall at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts.
MEEF’s selection committee, comprising Columbus business and education leaders, will interview the semifinalists to choose three finalists. Committee members will observe the finalists teaching in their classrooms. The winner will be announced during the foundation’s annual gala, May 5 in the Columbus Convention & Trade Center.
“The committee members are always awed and amazed at the selfless dedication, the unceasing commitment and passion that teachers have,” MEEF executive director Marquette McKnight said in a news release. “This year has been particularly insightful, reading about the challenges teachers have faced during the pandemic. More importantly, teachers are overcoming those challenges and looking for even more ways to connect with and teach their students.”
The selection committee members are:
- Carl Brown of C. Brown & Associates
- Donovan Granville of Social Security Administration
- Sheryl Green, MCSD’s 2015 Teacher of the Year
- Tom Hackett (chairman), retired educator
- Donna Kemp, retired educator
- Shane Larkin, MCSD’s 2017 Teacher of the Year
- Marquette McKnight of Media, Marketing and More
- Josh Reynolds of TSYS/Global Payments
- Dacia Sheffield, MCSD’s 2019 Teacher of the Year
- Len Williams of Columbus Affordable Housing Services.
The $50 tickets for the gala go on sale March 28 at the RiverCenter box office.
MEEF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering educational excellence by focusing on teachers who are innovative and exceptionally effective. In its 26-year history, the foundation has awarded more than $2.9 million to such educators through the Teacher of the Year and Harvard Fellows programs and other grants.
The MCSD Teacher of the Year semifinalists are eligible to become a Harvard Fellow. Since 2012, the foundation has paid for the expenses to send a group of MCSD teachers to Harvard University during the summer for a week of professional development.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 1:00 PM.
