Terry Crowningshield, Elizabethtown-Lewis Teachers Association, has been named New York State Art Educator of the Year. She was selected from among more than 6,500 art educators for the honor from the New York State Art Teachers Association. She has been teaching art to K-12 students for 23 years and has served as secretary and a member of the executive board of her local union.
Four NYSUT members have each received $25,000 for outstanding excellence in teaching from the national Milken Foundation. They are: Heather O'Leary, Schenectady Federation of Teachers, an ESL teacher; Robert Baxter, Buffalo Teachers Federation, a science teacher; Marcus Eure, Brewster Teachers Association, an English teacher; and Natasha Cooke Nieves, United Federation of Teachers and the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY, an instructional specialist in New York City schools and an adjunct at Brooklyn College. For more, go to www.nysut.org.
Seamus Scanlon, Professional Staff Congress at CUNY, has been named the 2010 Over the Edge New Writer of the Year by the Galway, Ireland, organization Over the Edge. A librarian and assistant professor at CUNY's Center for Worker Education Library, Scanlon won 700 euros and will present his winning short story, "Butterfly Love Song," at a ceremony in Ireland next spring.
Richard Keller-Coffey, Poughkeepsie PSTA, has been appointed by Gov. David Paterson to the board of trustees of Dutchess County Community College. A middle-level teacher, he is a former Dutchess County legislator and deputy supervisor of the Town of Poughkeepsie.