The 2023 Teacher of the Year in Muscogee County will be one of these 10 semifinalists
The 2023 Teacher of the Year in the Muscogee County School District will be one of these 10 semifinalists:
- Kacey Brown, Eagle Ridge Academy, English for Speakers of Other Languages
- Tori Culverhouse, Clubview Elementary School, third grade
- Claudia Curbelo, Veterans Memorial Middle School, math and Spanish
- Josh Evans, Double Churches Middle School, band
- Charlene Greene, Richards Middle School, English language arts
- Jamisha Harrison, Dorothy Height Elementary School, kindergarten
- Nick Jones, Hannan Magnet Academy, third grade
- Tasha Morman, St. Marys Road Magnet Academy, fifth-grade science and social studies
- Nicole Radney, Mathews Elementary School, second grade
- Tricia Willis, Columbus High School, humanities.
The Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation, which conducts MCSD’s Teacher of the Year program, released the semifinalist names Friday after MEEF board members surprised them by announcing the top 10 candidates in each of their classrooms.
They were selected from the applications of the 55 nominees, who were designated by their school’s staff. The nominees were announced last month 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 4 in the Columbus Convention & Trade Center. The $50 tickets go on sale March 21 at the RiverCenter box office.
“The selection process allows community leaders an insightful look at what teachers do day-in and day out-in their classrooms,” MEEF executive director Marquette McKnight said in the news release. “The committee members are always awed and amazed at the selfless dedication, the unceasing commitment that teachers must have to reach their students, to love their students.”
MEEF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering educational excellence and honoring teachers who are innovative and exceptionally effective. In its 27-year history, the foundation has awarded more than $3 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.
SELECTION COMMITTEE
The selection committee members are:
- Josh Reynolds (chairman), TSYS/Global Payments enterprise automation director
- Rita Ellis, Key 2 Wall Street managing partner
- Mandy Flynn, Aflac Foundation manager of corporate social responsibility
- Sheryl Green, MCSD 2015 Teacher of the Year
- Marquette McKnight, Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation executive director and Media, Marketing and More CEO
- Lisa Seegar, MCSD 2021 Teacher of the Year
- Paula Shaw-Powell, retired MCSD principal
- Dacia Sheffield, MCSD 2019 Teacher of the Year
- Gina Smith, Coldwell Banker KPDD realtor
- Ty Webb, W.C. Bradley Real Estate development manager.
This story was originally published March 10, 2023 at 12:01 PM.
