DRIVER EDUCATION TEACHERS FROM ILLINOIS, VERMONT AND VIRGINIA NAMED TEACHERS OF EXCELLENCE BY NATIONAL ROAD SAFETY FOUNDATION

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Jul 22, 2024, 10:00 ET

Selected by their peers at American Driver & Traffic Safety Education Association

ALBANY, N.Y., July 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Driver education teachers from three states have been selected by their peers nationwide as Teachers of Excellence. The honor, with a cash stipend, comes from the National Road Safety Foundation and the American Driver & Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA). The honorees are Gabriella Netch of Vermont, Deborah Fry of Chesapeake, VA, and Jennifer Brown of Gillespie, IL.

Teacher of Excellence honoree Deborah Fry has been teaching driver education since 2002, at Indian River Middle School and Indian River High School in Chesapeake, VA. She has served on driver education curriculum steering committees for the Virginia Dept. of Education.

Teacher of Excellence honoree Jennifer Brown has been teaching many subjects including driver education at Gillespie High School since 2000. For the past three years she has been the ADTSEA liaison for the National Student Safety Program liaison for ADTSEA, coordinating the group's annual student conference.

Teacher of Excellence Gabriella Netch, of Wallingford, VT, teaches at Yankee Driving School, which serves students at several schools throughout the Green Mountain State. She has served on the ADTSEA Board of Directors since 2022.

These outstanding teachers represent our best, and they inspire their peers to be passionate and effective teachers of this important lifetime skill," said Harold Fleming, a past ADTSEA president who heads the TEA selection committee. "We are proud to recognize them as the 2024 Teachers of Excellence."

All are being honored here today at the ADTSEA national conference, where they will present innovative lesson plans to their peers.

"Driver education teachers are dedicated to the young people they serve and often serve as role models in ways that go far beyond driver training," said David Reich of The National Road Safety Foundation and a member of the ADTSEA Board of Directors. "These Teachers of Excellence have demonstrated true passion for the important work they do to make driving safely a lifelong experience."

The Teacher Excellence Awards, given by The National Road Safety Foundation, are named in memory of Dr. Francis Kenel, a traffic safety engineer, former director of the AAA, author of driver ed teacher training materials and a mentor to countless driver education instructors.

The American Driver and Traffic Safety Education is the professional association that represents traffic safety educators throughout the United States. As a national advocate for quality traffic safety education, the group creates and publishes policies and guidelines for driver ed and conducts conferences and workshops for teachers. It was instrumental in creating the new driver education curriculum standard from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The National Road Safety Foundation (NRSF), a non-profit organization, has supported ADTSEA's Teacher Excellence Awards program for the past 11 years. For more than 60 years, NRSF has created driver education programs and materials for free distribution to teachers, police, traffic safety agencies, youth advocacy groups and others. NRSF has programs on distraction, speed and aggression, impairment and drowsy driving. The group also sponsors contests for teens in partnership with SADD and FCCLA, as well as regional teen contests in partnership with auto shows in Chicago and Detroit. To view and download free programs and for more information, visit www.nrsf.org.

Contact: David Reich, 914 325-9997, [email protected]

SOURCE The National Road Safety Foundation