2014 Winner
Knight Consulting
Rhonda Talford Knight, Director
Dr. Rhonda Talford Knight is an assistant professor in Teacher Education at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio, and serves as a consultant for districts across the nation and collaborates on educational projects internationally, including workshops on Cultural Competency for school districts throughout Ohio. Dr. Knight has also been an invited presenter for the Ohio Department of Education.
With a career in education spanning more than 15 years, Dr. Knight works with superintendents, school board members, pre-service and in-service teacher educators, students and community members to build positive and meaningful relationships that will have a lasting outcome and impact within their schools and school communities. A portion of her work focuses on “Closing the Relationship Gap” in order to address the Achievement Gap that continues to exist in our nation’s schools. Dr. Knight works with communities and individuals to develop a deeper sense of cultural understanding, awareness, and sensitivity in order to be empowered to work as advocates for themselves and others. Dr. Knight conducts webinars and has recently published a workbook with tools and strategies that is used in her teaching and workshops to further build on making cultural connections and building cultural proficiency.
Her international work encompasses research projects embedded in creating global connections and cultural understandings. She has presented her research on establishing global connections at Eurasian Educational Research Congress at Istanbul University. In 2014, Dr. Knight was invited to teach a course at Istanbul University. Dr. Knight will return to Istanbul and Eskis?ehir, Turkey in 2015 to collaborate with faculty and students and to teach a course in the Education Department at Anadolu University. She is passionate about ensuring all students receive a fair and equitable education.
2012 Winner
Teaching Tolerance: A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center
Receiving the award on behalf of SPL Center––Maureen Costello
http://www.tolerance.org
As one of the nation’s leading providers of anti-bias education resources, Teaching Tolerance reaches hundreds of thousands of educators and millions of students annually through its award-winning Teaching Tolerance magazine, multimedia teaching kits, online curricula, and professional development resources. These materials are provided to educators at no cost. Teaching Tolerance helps create school environments that are inclusive and nurturing, where students live equality and justice—not just hear about them. The program points to the future, helping teachers prepare a new generation to live in a diverse world.
2011 Winner
JEFFCO Schools’ Office of Diversity & Inclusion
Golden, CO
The Office of Diversity & Inclusion was created to address the achievement gap and climate issues by working to promote understanding, respect and appreciation of culture, heritage and ethnic diversity. Through discussion, study and implementation of multicultural education theory, practice and interventions, significant success in eliminating racism and discrimination have been realized in the state’s largest district.
Past Winners
-2006 Texas Tech University, College of Education, Lubbock, TX
2005 – Purdue Cooperative Extension Service
2004 – Teaching For Change, Washington DC
2002 – Eastern Educational Resource Collaborative
1999 – Children’s Book Press
1998 – The Smithsonian Institution — Center for Folklife and Cultural Studies
1997 – Institute of Texan Cultures
1996 – Southern Poverty Law Center
1995 – Binney & Smith, Inc.
1993- Silver Burdett & Ginn