During the Southeast Regional breakfast at the 2022 Delta Kappa Gamma International Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, Alabama State Organization recognized their Star of the Southeast?? Charlotte Oglesby. Charlotte was inducted into the Gamma Phi Chapter in 1999. She has been dedicated to Gamma Phi and Alabama State Organization. She has served as Chapter President three times as well as other office positions. At the state level, she has served on the Exhibits and Records Committee, Membership Chair, member of the Nominations Committee, and District Director. She has assisted with Leadership Seminar, Fall Boards, and Leadership Day. Charlotte prefers to work behind the scenes and is a fixture at all state meetings working with technology, stuffing packets, presenting workshops, or assisting in updating member information. Charlotte, retired from the Perry County where she served as Technology Director, Librarian, and teacher, is employed part-time as librarian at Marion Military Institute. Charlotte, a wife, a mother of three, a grandmother, and a great grandmother, lives in Marion, Alabama.
Mindy Walker of Beta Chapter, District IV exudes this mission in her personal studies while providing what is most excellent in education. Mrs. Walker received the Cornetet Award which is given to applicants who will be furthering their education through conferences, seminars, lectures, online courses, and workshops.
Mrs. Walker is an authority on the Holocaust, and she will be returning to Europe this summer to continue her studies. During July 1-15, she will be in Germany and Poland where she will be learning with the leading scholar on Auschwitz, Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt. They will be visiting campsites and documentation centers where Mrs. Walker will be photographing campsites for students’ understanding of how concentration camps looked and operated during the Holocaust while comparing the areas to their current appearance within the local communities in Europe.
The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous: European Study Program is sponsoring this study and investigation.
Congratulations to Ave Jack of the Alpha Lambda chapter in District III and a faculty member of the University of Alabama in Birmingham Collat School of Business (CSOB). The CSOB students recently honored four professors with the CSOB Teaching Excellence Awards. The annual teaching awards are voted on by Collat students and it honors one professor in each academic department and the graduate program. Ave Jack was the award winner for the accounting and finance department.
Alpha Tau member, Brenda Taylor, retired from the Winfield Board of Education after serving twenty years. At her final Winfield BOE meeting on May 12, 2020, she was honored for her invaluable service to the BOE, the school system, and the students by Winfield Schools Superintendent of Education Chris Cook, Chairman James Garner, and other board members. Although Brenda has officially retired from the board, she insisted she would continue to be active and available to the board and school system. Brenda retired from teaching twenty plus years in Winfield (K, 2, 3, 6, and Middle School) before serving on the Winfield BOE. She is currently teaching Adult Education at Athens College. Alpha Tau is proud of her contributions to Alabama Education and to our chapter.
Amanda Meadors Holmes, a member of the Gamma Zeta Chapter of Cleburne County, was awarded the Alabama Education Retirees Association (AERA) District II scholarship for 2020. Amanda has been teaching for 20 years and is currently the kindergarten teacher at Pleasant Grove Elementary School in Heflin. She is pursuing an Ed.S in Early Childhood Education at the University of West Alabama.
Dr. Kimberly Eddy, (Alpha Tau Chapter) is the 2020 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award on the Hamilton Campus of Bevill State Community College. Dr. Eddy has been a nursing instructor for seventeen years and currently serves on the Calendar Committee, Curriculum Committee, and as an advisor to the Student Nurse’s Organization. She has served as a peer evaluator for the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing for the past two years. In addition, she has worked with local senior citizens, attended medical mission trips during spring break, and volunteers with her family at Give Kids the World, a nonprofit organization that provides kids with life-threatening illnesses and their families with a place to stay on trips to Orlando, Florida. Alpha Tau Chapter welcomed Dr. Eddy as a member in 2019.
Congratulations to Wendy Stephens, a past state president, for being chosen chair for the International World Fellowship Committee! We are so proud of you! Pi (District V)
Helga Visscher (pictures below)attended the European Regional Convention in Reykjavik, Iceland July 25-27, 2019. I am attaching some photos. There was a woman, Maja Gaiman from the Sweden State Chapter who lived I Enterprise, AL in 2012-2013. Her husband is in the Swedish army and was at Fort Rucker for a special project.
Dr. Elizabeth Anderton (foreground, pictured below) of Alpha Gamma Chapter, inspects the traditional chinampa agriculture systems in Xochimilco, Mexico.
Dr. Elizabeth Anderton, Alpha Gamma Chapter, recently traveled to Mexico to study the Xochimilco wetlands, located just south of Mexico City. As an agriscience instructor at Daphne High School, Dr. Anderton said her goal with the trip was “to help our students better understand the importance of wetlands and the unique ecosystems they support.” As part of the trip, she studied many of the migrating birds shared with south Alabama’s wetlands and the region’s traditional farming practices using ancient chinampa systems -- small rectangle areas of fertile soil in shallow lake beds --which pre-date the Aztecs.
Other topics covered included water quality needs for healthy habitats for many endangered animals, especially the Axolotl salamander; native plants; and the link between conservation of native plants and animals in Xochimilco with the preservation of its wetlands and chinampas.
Dr. Anderton is not content with being a learner only. She is considering how she and her students can build an international partnership with a nearby school. “We have so many common problems; it only makes sense to share our solutions and energy,” she said.
Ana Carolina Behel, an English language-development teacher and DeltaKappaGamma member who works at Weeden Elementary school in Florence, Alabama, was named 2019-2020 Alabama Teacher of the Year during an awards ceremony on May 8 in Montgomery, Alabama.
The honor makes her Alabama’s nominee for National Teacher of the Year, and Behel will spend most of the year being an ambassador for the state’s education system and presenting at workshops. “I am so honored and thankful for this opportunity to represent the Great State of Alabama as the 2019-2020 State Teacher of the Year,” she said in a statement. Behel said she was inspired to become a teacher because she wanted to share her love of learning, languages, diversity, and cultures with others. Her goal is to make learning an enjoyable experience that allows students a safe place to grow and become leaders of their own learning.