GoTeachKY Announcing 2024 AmbassadorsThe Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has named the new class of ambassadors for the GoTeachKY initiative.

The mission of GoTeachKY is to ensure that all students across the Commonwealth have equitable access to effective educators. GoTeachKY seeks to recruit the next generation of teachers in Kentucky, helping remedy the critical teacher shortage that affects every state in the U.S.

Ambassadors in the GoTeachKY initiative have three main goals:

  • Communicate with and inspire students in high school and college to consider teaching as a career.
  • Communicate with potential and current teachers to promote the rewards and opportunities associated with a career in teaching.
  • Support and promote the central focus areas, programs and organizations of GoTeachKY, such as Educators Rising Kentucky and the Teaching and Learning career pathway.

Ambassadors were selected from a pool of applicants from across the state who answered the call for educators interested in supporting the initiative and helping promote the teaching profession.

The 2024 GoTeachKY ambassadors are:

  • Mackenzie Pettus Adams, Rockfield Elementary School (Warren County)
  • Robyn Ballinger, Chenoweth Elementary School (Jefferson County)
  • Steven Daniel Beams, Taylor County Middle School
  • Janelle Brojakowski, Fallsburg Elementary School (Lawrence County)
  • Heather Carden, Freedom Elementary School (Christian County)
  • Dionna Collins, Johnson Central High School (Johnson County)
  • Kimberly Cook, Spencer County High School
  • Ronda Cox, Spencer County Middle School
  • Latanza Garvin, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (Fayette County)
  • Erin Grace, Rockcastle County High School
  • Katie Hale, Ponderosa Elementary School (Boyd County)
  • Heather Hayen, Chenoweth Elementary School (Jefferson County)
  • Melissa Anne Hopkins, Cedar Grove Elementary School (Bullitt County)
  • Dylan Howard, Paducah Middle School (Paducah Independent)
  • Caylen Knight, Randall K. Cooper High School (Boone County)
  • Bree Massie, Frederick Douglass High School (Fayette County)
  • Elizabeth Minix, Breathitt County (Districtwide)
  • Laura Pratt, Paducah Head Start (Paducah Independent)
  • Bridget Powell, Central Elementary School (Marshall County)
  • Stacy R. Stockdale, Owensboro Innovation Academy (Owensboro Independent)
  • Becky Wright, Henry County High School

Ambassadors must hold or have held a teaching position in a Kentucky public school and have at least four years of experience as a teacher, principal or other certified school staff member.

Each ambassador has a unique story that brought them into the teaching profession and their stories will be featured on social media as examples of the different pathways available to future educators.

Ambassadors also will represent GoTeachKY at career fairs and other speaking engagements.

For more, visit the GoTeachKY Ambassador Program webpage or e-mail KDE Program Consultant Justin Edwards.