The Lowell Milken Center (LMC) for Unsung Heroes in Fort Scott, an international educational non-profit organization, has awarded its prestigious Fellowship to eight educators who will be at the Lowell Milken Center from June 20 to June 25.
The LMC Fellowship is awarded on the basis of merit to educators who have distinguished themselves in teaching respect and understanding through project-based learning or who have the potential for this distinction. The Center selects exemplary teachers from across America and around the world, drawn from a variety of disciplines, to collaborate on projects that discover, develop, and communicate the stories of Unsung Heroes in history.
Carly Bowden has been a middle school math teacher for 6 years at Andover Central Middle School in Andover, Kansas, and was a 2019 Kansas Milken Educator. Next year, she will be teaching mathematics at Oregon Trail Middle School in Olathe. Carly teaches her students by creating learning experiences to make mathematics come to life. Connecting math concepts with local businesses and charities allows her students to simultaneously develop empathy and build their mastery in math concepts. Carly is known for positive relationships with her students and connections with those students whose relationship with math needs strengthening.
Since 2017, Carly has been involved with the Voya STEM Fellowship. In 2019 Carly joined the Understood Teacher Fellowship which helps provide resources for educators and families for students with learning differences. Outside of school, she is busy coaching track and field, running road races with her family and running a small earring business.
Sarah Compton has taught for 14 years at Northside Elementary, a K-5 school in Monroe, Wisconsin. In addition to being a fifth-grade teacher, Sarah has served in a variety of supplementary roles, which include serving as a new teacher mentor, a gifted and talented coordinator, and a professional development presenter. Sarah is known for developing project-based learning opportunities for her students. Students in her class have been challenged to create public service announcements, to role-play being on a Congressional task force, and to invest in a stock market simulation. Sarah takes pride in building strong relationships with her students. Through those connections and Sarah’s focus on data-driven instruction, her students achieve significant academic growth each year.
In 2012, Sarah was awarded Monroe’s Crystal Apple Achievement Award. In 2018, Sarah was honored to become a Milken Educator. Sarah is now serving on the Wisconsin DPI’s Teacher Leader Network, connecting current educators to the state superintendent’s office. She serves as a mentor and presenter at the Teachers of Promise Institute.
Kim Greer has taught Social Studies for 17 years at Nevada Middle School in Nevada, Missouri. Kim is currently the sponsor of the 6th grade girls’ club, Girl EmPOWERment, and a co-sponsor of the Honors Club at NMS. She is a department leader and active member of the Community Teachers’ Association and Professional Development Committee.
Kim served as a Fellow for the Korean War Digital History Project in 2017, where she assisted in the development of an online textbook and edited veteran interviews. As a Life Guard Teacher Fellow at Mount Vernon in 2018-19, she researched and developed lesson plans for the Mount Vernon website. Kim also served as a Teacher Facilitator at the George Washington Teacher Institute on Martha Washington and Women of the 18th Century in 2019 and was named an American Revolution Master Teacher in 2020. She will spend a week at Monticello as an MTI/Barringer Fellow in July 2021.
Dan Helberg has been in education for the past 19 years across the states of Nebraska and North Carolina. Dan has taught English at a variety of levels and was the principal at Adams Middle School in North Platte, NE for three years. After a return to the classroom, he has taught 7-12 English at Ansley Public Schools in Ansley, NE and also coaches the Speech team.
In 2013, Dan received a Fund for Teachers Grant and toured Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic while researching Jewish Culture and the Holocaust. In 2014, he attended the Belfer Conference at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Dan lives in the Sandhills of Nebraska where he ranches with his family and enjoys the peaceful prairie surroundings. He is from Ansley, Nebraska.
Tami Lunsford has been teaching for 20 years at various levels, including high school, community college, university, and teacher professional development. Her first teaching job was at the University of Hawaii’s University Laboratory School where she taught at the high school level, partnering with colleagues to connect science to native Hawaiian cultural and historical practices.
She has continued connecting science and real-life applications with cultural relevance. She found her academic home at Newark Charter School in 2012, helping to open and develop a new high school as an expansion of an incredibly successful K-8 school. She has worked with her team of teachers to develop and expand the science curricula, align it with Next Generation Science Standards, and provide challenging and rigorous content at various levels.
Tami teaches Honors Biology, AP Biology, and Marine Science at both an elective and dual-enrollment level. Her Marine Science course is entirely Project-Based Learning and centered around five major issues facing our world ocean today. In addition, she facilitates professional development on deep-ocean exploration for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. In 2017, she became the first Milken Educator in the state of Delaware. She has been the Mid Atlantic Marine Education Association Outstanding Teacher of the year, won a regional award from the Air Force in STEM education, and has been active regionally and nationally with the National Marine Educators’ Association. Tami strives to help her students find and use their voices and their gifts to make the world a better place . . .whatever that means to them. She is from Newark, Delaware.
Samantha Neill has taught English Language Arts and journalism at Buhler High School in Buhler USD 313 for the past 18 years. Although she is a long-time ELA teacher, she recently took a leap of faith and began teaching journalism and photography. She is working to create opportunities that empower students to use skills they have learned in real-life situations and create connections with influential adults and businesses in their communities. More than anything, Samantha believes teachers must reach the whole child, both socially and emotionally, rather than just teaching content. This belief inspired her to start the BHS Clothing Closet and BHS Food Bank to help meet clothing, food, and toiletry needs of students at her school.
In 2018, Samantha was named Kansas Teacher of the Year. The Kansas Teacher of the Year Award recognizes and utilizes representatives of excellent teaching in elementary and secondary classrooms across the state of Kansas. Since then, she has led district-wide professional development about trauma-informed schools and classrooms. She also served as a member of the Kansas Continuous Learning Task Force, which created guidance for 300 local school districts as the state of Kansas transitioned to remote learning due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Outside of school, she is a wife and a mom to three boys, an avid baseball mom, a member of the Buhler Community Foundation, and a novice photographer. She is a foster-to-adopt mom who advocates for foster care and adoption within her community.
Shalisha Thomas was the 2019 Arkansas Milken Educator. She has taught for 9 years in the Pine Bluff School District. She currently serves as the lead art teacher and Art Club sponsor at Pine Bluff High School (PBHS). Shalisha graduated from PBHS in 2002. Teaching students from the same community where she grew up is a privilege that she does not take lightly.
She works diligently to help her students learn how to problem solve and develop an appreciation for art. Shalisha also incorporates content from other subjects in her lessons to help her students make connections across the curriculum. She realizes that exhibiting art is an important part of the artistic process. Consequently, she encourages her students to share their art with others by participating in an art exhibition designed specifically for PBHS students at the Arts & Science Center, a local art and science museum.
Jennifer Wilson has taught at North East High School in North East, Pennsylvania for twenty-five years. She teaches American History, Advanced Placement European History, Contemporary Issues, and Ethnic Conflict, an elective course she created. She is the Social Studies Department Chair, a member of the Academic Letter Committee, and has held various class adviserships over the years. Jennifer, her students, and a colleague created Inspire, a group that promotes a positive school climate through a range of activities. The group created a school wide Code of Ethics and set up food collections, random acts of kindness campaigns, art contests, and many other activities.
Throughout her career, Jennifer has pursued a mission to include Holocaust and genocide studies in her curriculum and district. She became a Museum Teacher Fellow with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 and worked with the Jewish Community Council of Erie, PA and local universities to provide professional development for educators. Jennifer recently finished her Masters in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Gratz College, earning the Samuel and Bessie Starr Memorial Prize. Sponsored by the JCC of Erie, she traveled to Poland, the Czech Republic, and France in the summer of 2019 on a “Holocaust in Europe” tour. She spoke at the National Council for the Social Studies conference in 2019, presenting the revised curriculum for her Ethnic Conflict course on the “forces of division” in human society that often lead to conflict. In her classes, Jennifer stresses the complexity of history by considering various viewpoints, using a range of resources, and highlighting the importance of context. Jennifer recently collaborated on an Educator’s Guide for Sidonia’s Thread, an online exhibit about Holocaust survivor Sidonia Perlstein. Outside of school, Jennifer enjoys time with family, including her husband of 25 years and her two children, ages 19 and 17.She is from North East, Pennsylvania.
While in Fort Scott, LMC Fellows gain knowledge, educational resources and ongoing support to enhance their classrooms and help students cultivate a passion for learning by creating projects that initiate positive change. Fellows emerge prepared to develop Unsung Heroes projects with their students, as they apply and evaluate the stories of role models who have changed the world throughout history.