Museum Educator of the Year Award


About the Award

Museum educators are the primary contact between museums and the K-12 school audience, and they provide critical services within the museum community that support the state’s educational goals, teacher education, and student connections to our history and heritage. The co-sponsors of this award have created it in order to recognize outstanding achievement in museum education by an individual working on behalf of their organization to create exceptional experiences for school-aged visitors.


Eligible educators:

Any educator who works directly with school-aged audiences or teachers is eligible to receive this award, including front line staff, or any department director who is responsible for developing and implementing educational programs.


Award Criteria:

This award will be given to a museum educator who best demonstrates a long term commitment to high quality educational experiences in their organization. Nominees should:

  • Have more than 5 years of experience in museum education
  • Have significant experience creating education programs for school-aged visitors
  • Demonstrate a mastery of delivering innovative programming to school groups

Nominations:
  • Museum directors or an educator’s direct supervisor may nominate a candidate for this award.

Decision Process:

The Virginia Association of Museums Leadership Development Committee will receive nominations and complete a preliminary review, narrowing the nominees to no more than 3 finalists. The Virginia Department of Education will then review the finalists and make the final selection. The nominator of the winning educator will receive notification prior to the award being given at the 2023 Annual Conference.

Nominations are Closed

2024
Truly Matthews

Past Nominees:

2023

Amanda Williams

2022

Christy Deatherage