Cape chamber honors Educators of the Year

The Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce will honor five people as the 2008 Educators of the Year. Rhonda Dunham, Josh LaMar, Becky Hicks, Roy Merideth and Dr. Mitchel Gerber were selected.

Dunham has been principal of Franklin Elementary for seven years and is pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership and policy analysis. Before her current position, Dunham taught fifth and sixth grade in Scott City for five years, computers for one year at Washington Elementary, and sixth grade for five years at Jefferson Elementary. She volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters and the River Corridor Task Force.

LaMar teaches band at Central Junior High, supervises the jazz band for the junior high and high school, and is an assistant for the marching band. He worked in Arnold, Mo., and Sikeston, Mo., before becoming come to the Cape Girardeau School District in 2001. He plays for the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band and volunteers with the Salvation Army.

Hicks has taught second grade at Blanchard Elementary since 1999 and previously worked at May Greene Elementary. Hicks received the 2006 Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. She has served as the Accelerated Reading Coordinator for more than ten years, and has led workshops around the state.

Rhonda Dunham

Rhonda Dunham

Merideth taught English at Kelly High School, Notre Dame Regional High School and Jackson Junior High before being named an administrator at Central Junior High in 2005. He has been principal two years. The Boys & Girls Club of Cape Girardeau awarded him a certificate of appreciation, THRIVE named him the Community Member of the Year, and he recently won the Dr. Ritter Humanitarian Award.

Gerber is a professor in the department of political science, philosophy and religion at Southeast Missouri State University. He is the author of more than 35 publications and has extensively studied the Holocaust, genocide and human rights. In 1997 and 2006 he was named Exempli Gratia, or Most Exemplary Honors Faculty, at Southeast.

An awards banquet will be held at 5:45 p.m. May 1 at the Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau. Call 335-3312 for tickets.

lbavolek@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123

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