Churchill High School teacher wins Regional Teacher of the Year Award
One of Eugene School District 4J’s outstanding educators has won accolades from the state: Keri Pilgrim Ricker, health sciences teacher at Churchill High School, is Oregon’s Regional Teacher of the Year for the South Valley region and is in the running to be named 2019 Oregon Teacher of the Year.
Ms. Ricker coordinates and teaches health sciences in Churchill’s Career & Technical Education (CTE) Health Services Pathway. She is a skilled and passionate professional who discovered her love of teaching when she took a part-time job teaching at a local community center while working as a veterinary surgical technician in Corvallis. Ms. Ricker developed and taught a K–12 ecology curriculum, which she found so rewarding that she enrolled in Oregon State University’s Science and Mathematics Teaching Program and earned her teaching license. That was eight years ago and she’s never looked back.
Churchill principal Dr. Greg Borgerding says, “Keri teaches with passion for her subject and deep respect for her students. She meets them where they are and then shows them the stars. Her constant focus on student goal-setting and achievement is her greatest gift to kids. Keri is a teacher who exercises her heart.”
Oregon’s Regional Teachers of the Year are selected by a diverse panel of representatives from their geographic region. In September, one of the 13 Regional Teachers of the Year will be named the 2019 Oregon Teacher of the Year.
The Oregon Teacher of the Year and Regional Teacher of the Year is a program of the Oregon Department of Education, in partnership with the Oregon Lottery. For more information, visit oregonteacheroftheyear.org.
