Educator Spotlight: Brandi Violette
For the past 20 years, Brandi Violette has dedicated her career to teaching special education students at Olmsted Elementary School (Logan County).
Educator Spotlight: Amber Dwyer
“Be the person you needed when you were little.” That’s what being an educator is all about for Amber Dwyer.
Educator Spotlight: Brittany Ritter
Brittany Ritter has always known that she wanted to be a teacher. Her love for teaching was fostered from an early age by watching her father teach high school choir in Jefferson County.
Educator Spotlight: Deanna Landrum
Deanna Landrum has spent the past 11 years of her life dedicated to her students. In her current role as a library media specialist and Google support specialist at the Southgate Independent School District, she is demonstrating a passion for literacy and innovation.
Educator Spotlight: Justin Moreschi
Justin Moreschi is a 16-year veteran educator currently teaching 4th- and 5th-grade science at Klondike Lane Elementary (Jefferson County).
Educator Spotlight: Steven Thomas
Steven Thomas didn’t take the “traditional” route to become the educator he is today. After graduating high school, Thomas did not initially attend college with the goal of becoming a teacher. Instead, he chose to apply the skills he learned in his agriculture classes, under teachers William Wallace Evans and Matt Chaliff at Taylor County High School, to pursue a career in welding.
Educator Spotlight: Victoria Mohon
Victoria Mohon, an agriculture teacher at Christian County High School, helps her students work on both their strengths and weaknesses, as well as providing support for them beyond high school.
Nominations are open for 2025 Kentucky Teacher of the Year
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2025 Kentucky Teacher of the Year awards. Presented by the Kentucky Department of Education, the awards celebrate some of the Commonwealth’s most outstanding educators.
Educator Spotlight: Rhoda Whitaker
In her 28 years as an educator, Rhoda Whitaker has taught at the elementary, middle and high school levels, but she found her calling as a teacher at Whitesburg Middle School (Letcher County) with students with disabilities.
Educator Spotlight: Justin Mitchell
If you ask 8th-grade social studies teacher Justin Mitchell what lesson defines his teaching, he’ll say Colonial America. “This is such a crucial and complex period of time, with us going from being well under the rule of Great Britain to being our own country in just 20 years.” said Mitchell. But in order to get his students to fully understand and resonate with the founding of America, he knew he couldn’t just stick to worksheets and note-taking.