‘Outstanding educators.’ These are the nominees for Teacher of the Year in Muscogee County

The Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation announced the 54 nominees for the Muscogee County School District 2025 Teacher of the Year award Thursday at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in downtown Columbus.

“These outstanding educators exemplify the heart of our mission, which is to recognize and reward exceptional teachers,” MEEF Chairman Wes Kelley said in the foundation’s news release. “Each honoree brings innovation, passion and dedication to the classroom, creating transformative learning experiences that benefit not only our students but our entire community.”

Each MCSD school may nominate one teacher for this award. In addition to Thursday’s ceremony in the RiverCenter’s Legacy Hall, the nominees will be celebrated at a breakfast featuring speeches by the national and state teachers of the year, then at MEEF’s annual gala, where the winner will be announced in front of a crowd that usually surpasses 1,000.

This year’s gala will be May 1 at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center, starting with the reception at 6 p.m. and followed by the dinner and program at 6:45 p.m. The $55 tickets will go on sale March 24 at the RiverCenter box office.

MCSD superintendent David Lewis told the nominees during Thursday’s ceremony, “We are just so very proud of you, and I thank you personally for your commitment and dedication to the profession, to our district and to your respective schools. You could work anywhere, and you’ve chosen to work in Muscogee County and at your school, and I’m very grateful for that.”

MEEF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering educational excellence by helping teachers who are innovative and exceptionally effective in the public schools of Columbus. The foundation has awarded more than $3.3 million to such educators through financial incentives in the Teacher of the Year program, the MEEF Grant program, the MEEF Endowment Fund and the Harvard Fellows program.

MCSD 2024 Teacher of the Year Christie Akers, an English teacher at Northside High School, told this year’s nominees she has learned Muscogee County “notices us in a big way” compared to the Teacher of the Year programs in other districts throughout Georgia.

“For some of them,” she said, “it was just announced in the cafeteria at lunch. … It just goes to show what a gift we have here in our community, … that MEEF wants to recognize and celebrate the work that you do.”

Akers had a personal reason for even more celebration about Thursday’s announcement because one of her former students is a nominee this year: Alexandra Countryman is the Teacher of the Year at South Columbus Elementary School.

Countryman, who teaches art at Key Elementary School as well, was a ninth-grader at Shaw High School in 2006-07 when Akers was her English teacher.

So to be nominated the year after her former teacher won the district award, “I think it’s really cool,” Countryman told the Ledger-Enquirer.

Countryman attended Dawson and Downtown elementary schools and Arnold Middle School before graduating from Shaw in 2010. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Valdosta State University and her master’s degree from Columbus State University.

Reflecting on her time as a student in Akers’ class, Countryman told Akers, “You gave us a project, and it was to do a news article, and I spent like a whole bunch of time on it, and I got like a 200 out of 200 points, and you called me over, and you’re like, ‘This is so amazing.’ And I felt so good. You made me feel so good about it.”

Such positive feedback from Akers encouraged Countryman to write more.

“She was very patient,” Countryman said, “and she was very caring.”

Akers also was educated at local schools: Double Churches Elementary School, Richards Middle School, Columbus High School and Columbus State University. She was in her first year as a teacher when she taught Countryman’s English class.

“I remember Alexandra being a very conscientious student,” she told the Ledger-Enquirer, then turned to Countryman and added, “You were very quiet but very sweet. … I have a bad habit of like chit-chatting with my students, and so I could get her to open up a little bit that way.”

When she realized one of her former students is a nominee for the same district award she won last year, Akers said, “Well, first I felt old. But once I got over that, it was really like a full-circle moment. It’s this amazing thing that teaching does, that you build connections.

“Then, with social media, you get to stay in touch with your former students, and then to see some of them become teachers themselves and to give back and be in the profession that I love so much, it’s really rewarding.”

MCSD 2025 Teacher of the Year nominees

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

• Allen: Rachel Daniel

• Blanchard: Mandi Farmer

• Britt David: Jelynn Horne

• Clubview: Beth Carlisle

• Davis: Marie Reynolds

• Dimon: Amber Slater

• Dorothy Height: Kym Whatley

• Double Churches: Ashley Watkins

• Downtown: Courtney Warren

• Eagle Ridge: Abigail Serrano

• Forrest Road: Diane Ventimiglia

• Fox: Tracy Comer

• Gentian: Clay Crowe

• Georgetown: Paula Distin

• Hannan: Lonnie Jones

• Johnson: Christi Crowder

• Key: Aura Johnson

• Lonnie Jackson: Jennifer Parker

• Martin Luther King Jr.: German Zurita

• Mary A. Buckner: Dakota Crawford

• Mathews: Melanie Parrish

• Midland: Cheryl Jandreau

• North Columbus: Jill Davis

• Reese Road: Meghann Burnett

• Rigdon Road: Krystle Golden

• River Road: Sherri Smith

• South Columbus: Alexandra Countryman

• Waddell: Ann Marie Wiley

• Wesley Heights: Jamila Collington

• Wynnton: Amanda Zarate

MIDDLE SCHOOLS

• Aaron Cohn: LaRae Snipes

• Arnold: Brooke Cash

• Baker: April Allen

• Blackmon Road: Kenisha Huff

• Double Churches: Eretha Hamilton

• East Columbus: Rosetta Blackmon

• Eddy: Shanika Carter

• Fort: Tim Murphy

• Midland: Latasha Sharp

• Richards: Tomika Norman

• Rothschild: Heaven Briggs

• Veterans: Christi Scarbrough

HIGH SCHOOLS

• Carver: Markia Woods

• Columbus: Roy Bolar

• Hardaway: Brandon Sweeney

• Jordan: CJ Repass

• Kendrick: Angela Landon

• Northside: Karissa Branch

• Shaw: Dorothy Brown

• Spencer: Aaron Guest

OTHERS

• Brewer Early Innovation Academy: Jasmine Sparks

• Marshall Success Center: Barbara Morgan

• Rainey-McCullers School of the Arts: Marta Lopez

• St. Elmo Center for the Gifted: Caroline O’Connor