Awards

CEL Teacher-Leader of Excellence Award

2024 Winner: Sarah Mulhern Gross

Sarah Mulhern Gross is a National Board–certified English teacher at High Technology High School in NJ. She also has an MA in teaching biology through Project Dragonfly. Her passion is the intersection of literacy and science, particularly science communication, climate change education, and nature-deficit disorder in adolescents. She aims to help her students connect with nature through reading, writing, and time spent outside. Her writing has appeared in Scientific American, ASCD, the Nerdy Book Club blog, The New Jersey English Journal, The New York Times Learning Network, and the Washington Post‘s Answer Sheet. She helped organize #nerdcampNJ and is currently the English curriculum coordinator in her district.

The award will be presented during the CEL Annual Convention.

Award Details

Nomination Deadline: April 1

Purpose:  The CEL Teacher-Leader of Excellence Award recognizes a classroom educator and NCTE member who leads in and out of the classroom by amplifying student voices and also finds ways to contribute to the broader school and educational communities.

Award Criteria:  The award recipient should exemplify the following:

• Literacy work that has made a notable impact inside of the classroom
• Leadership outside of the classroom that has generated change in literacy instruction, programming, and/or systems.
• Teaching should be at least half of this person’s daily role.

Award Specifics: The recipient receives a certificate, which is presented at the CEL Annual Convention.

Nomination Materials:  All nominations must contain the Nomination Form, at least two letters of recommendation, and the candidate’s curriculum vitae.

Judging:  The CEL Award Committee determines the recipient from the nominations submitted within the calendar year. For full consideration, nominations must be received no later than April 1. Candidates not selected for the year in which they are nominated will receive consideration for the next two years.

*If you are unsure which award best matches you/the nominee’s experience, please email cel@ncte.org.
**Note: The CEL Awards Committee may consider nominees for an award different from the one for which they were nominated if they feel it is a better fit.