The Kentucky Department of Education has named the new class of ambassadors for the GoTeachKY initiative. Photo by Joe Ragusa, Kentucky Department of Education, Oct. 30, 2024
The 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 2025 GoTeachKY ambassadors are:
- Jennifer Brown, Menifee County
- Natalie Canizal, Fayette County
- Brooke Coffman, Shelby County
- Hayley Dant, Boone County
- Jessica Dawn Thrasher, Wayne County
- Zach Fisher, Jefferson County
- Preston Graves, Simpson County
- Michelle Gross, Spencer County
- Melissa Hall, Breathitt County
- Amber Hinkle, Bell County
- Madeline Janel Morgan, Williamstown Independent
- Allison King, Paintsville Independent
- Rachel Maxwell, Scott County
- Sadie Rice, Fayette County
- Ryan Scott Johnson, Barren County
- Ashley K. Smith, Jefferson County
- Alicia C. Thomas, Fayette County
- Pennie Thomas, Boyd County
- Sarah Wallace, Anderson County
- Sarah Webster, Boone County
- Crista Williams, Warren County
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.
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