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	Last updated 10/16/02

The NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence

2002 Finalist and Recipient of The Horace Mann–
NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence

Jennifer Lynne Williams
Idaho Education Association

Jennifer Lynne Williams is an art teacher at Skyview High School in Nampa, Idaho, where she has taught for nearly three decades. In addition to her work at the high school level, Ms. Williams is an adjunct faculty member at Boise State University and serves students of all ages through the Boise Art Museum and the Idaho Art Association. She is the 2002 Idaho Teacher of the Year and the 2001 Idaho Art Teacher of the Year.

Ms. Williams makes a point of opening her classroom to students who have been identified as "tough to teach," including students with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and behavioral problems. A core feature of her teaching practice has been outreach to students in rural areas. Through "Project Van Go," a program she created--and funded out of her own pocket for more than twenty years--Ms. Williams has taken hundreds of her high school students to small public schools in remote locations across the state, where the students act as "teachers for a day" by introducing their peers to the world of fine arts.

Ms. Williams is a career-long member and leader of the Idaho Education Association, and has taken advantage of her status as state Teacher of the Year to speak out at rallies and legislative sessions. Recalls Kathy Phelan, president of the Idaho Education Association, "Her speech on the capitol steps brought the more than 7,000 public education advocates to tears and cheers. . . . She is an articulate champion of Idaho's children, the arts, public education, and the teaching profession."

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