Established by the Arizona Educational Foundation (AEF) in 2026, the Arizona Education Hall of Fame stands as a living monument of those individuals and businesses who strengthen our schools and invest in Arizona’s future. By honoring leaders who have left an indelible mark on students, educators, and neighborhoods, the Hall of Fame elevates the stories of impact that too often go untold and sets a standard of excellence for generations to come.
Annually, AEF accepts recommendations and nominations. Honorees are recognized at the Back to School Breakfast, a celebration of individuals and companies who are making a difference in public education.
Award Categories
Pillar of Public Education Award: Presented to an outstanding business whose distinguished service and profound influence have fortified Arizona’s public education landscape. As a Pillar of Public Education, this honoree exemplifies the highest ideals of leadership, integrity, and dedication to the principle that a strong public education system is essential to the future of our state and its citizens.
Spirit of Education Award: Recognizes a business whose passionate, hands-on philanthropy ignites opportunity across Arizona. Through generosity, funding, and employee volunteerism, this award honors a deep belief in the power of education to transform lives—embodying the innovative and caring spirit that inspires Arizona’s future.
Education Leader of the Year: Honors an individual whose lifelong, passionate dedication has profoundly shaped Arizona’s educational landscape. Through decades of distinguished service as an educator, leader, or advocate, they have ignited opportunity, elevated teaching and learning, and created lasting impact across K-12 and higher education.
Carolyn Warner Legacy Award: Recognizes a past Arizona Teacher of the Year Award recipient who embodies the enduring legacy and visionary leadership emulated by AEF’s late Founder and former Arizona Department of Education Superintendent, Carolyn Warner.
School District Foundation of the Year: Recognizes a school district foundation that demonstrates exceptional community impact through strategic, heartfelt support for public education in Arizona. By raising vital resources, forging strong partnerships, and providing supportive programming, the foundation amplifies excellence in classrooms and beyond.
Arizona Education Hall of Fame 2026 Inductees
Desert Financial Credit Union stands as a true Pillar of Public Education, championing Arizona’s students and educators through unwavering commitment and generous support. From the Adopt-A-Teacher initiative that equips teachers with essential resources and supplies for their classrooms to grants for nonprofits advancing education, to their support of 1 Darn Cool School at Phoenix Children’s , Desert Financial has invested millions to strengthen teaching and learning across the state. Their dedication to scholarships, teacher appreciation, and community partnerships embodies the foundational strength that elevates public education for every Arizona child.
Pillar of Public Education Award
Desert Financial Credit Union stands as a true Pillar of Public Education, championing Arizona’s students and educators through unwavering commitment and generous support. From the Adopt-A-Teacher initiative that equips teachers with essential resources and supplies for their classrooms to grants for nonprofits advancing education, to their support of 1 Darn Cool School at Phoenix Children’s , Desert Financial has invested millions to strengthen teaching and learning across the state. Their dedication to scholarships, teacher appreciation, and community partnerships embodies the foundational strength that elevates public education for every Arizona child.
Spirit of Education Award
Education Leader of the Year Award
PAST RECIPIENTS:Carolyn Warner Legacy Award
Dr. Kelty began his career with Teach for America in 2001 in Crownpoint, New Mexico, located in the heart of the Navajo Nation. Since then, he has held several significant roles, including head of school, superintendent, member of the national team for Teach for America, and an elected official as the Coconino County Superintendent of Schools. In his current role as Head of IB North America, Dr. Kelty is responsible for overseeing government relations at the federal and state levels, fostering national and international partnerships, and driving the growth of IB across both countries. IB is seen as one of the most respected and prestigious educational foundations around the world in both the private and public-school sectors.
Mary Lara is the 2025 recipient of the Carolyn Warner Legacy Award given by the Arizona Educational Foundation (AEF®) in partnership with the Warner family.
Ms. Lara has been a dedicated educator for nearly 50 years, starting in 1978 as a kindergarten teacher and continuing through her current work with Northern Arizona University and the NASA/NAU Space Grant Office as the American Indian Mobil Educational Resources (AIMER) coordinator in Northern Arizona. For most of her career, Mary worked in the Flagstaff Unified School district, where she taught elementary school for nearly 40 years (kindergarten through 3rd and 5th grade), was an elementary librarian and finished as the Career Ladder coordinator before retiring in 2016.
In 2003, when she was named an AEF Ambassador for Excellence as a finalist for the Arizona Teacher of the Year Award, she headed up a project to build Walker Observatory at DeMiguel Elementary School. The project involved building a full-scale observatory to house a 16” refracting telescope built by Kenneth Walker. Mary still hosts Star Parties and solar observing sessions for FUSD schools and continues to co-sponsor the Astronomy Club at DeMiguel Elementary School.
In her current role as the AIMER coordinator, Mary travels to Northern Arizona (and sometimes New Mexico) tribal schools to present hands-on STEM lessons. She also sets up Family Science Nights and hosts community star parties. Additionally, she assists with Astronomy Nights (as Astrono-Mary) at Camp Colton (FUSD’s outdoor environmental education center) and St. Joseph’s Camp (a Knights of Columbus camp near Mormon Lake). She also assists with monthly star parties at Yavapai Lodge at the Grand Canyon. Recently she assisted with solar observing for the Heard Museum’s Free Family Summer Saturday. Mary also participates in the Flagstaff STEM celebration and Flagstaff’s Science in the Park.
Mary received her BS in Early Childhood Education and her MA in Elementary Education from Northern Arizona University. She is a past board member of the Council for Elementary Science International and past president of Arizona Science Teachers Association. She was a co-developer for a Unit of Study in connection with the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander Mission. She has attended NASA Space Academy and flown aboard the zero-G plane. She is a Solar System Ambassador through NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
Her awards include the Air Force Association Aerospace Education Foundation Teacher of the Year, State Finalist for the 2003 Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching, CESI/Ciba (Council for Elementary Science International/Ciba Chemicals Corporation) Exemplary Elementary Science Teacher, ReliaStar and Northern Life Unsung Heroes, and most recently the Creative Flagstaff Viola for Excellence in Education.
Elizabeth Bradshaw is the 2024 recipient of the Arizona Educational Foundation (AEF®) Carolyn Warner Legacy Award.
Bradshaw is the 1991 AEF Arizona Teacher of the Year®, and a 2012 National Teachers Hall of Fame Semifinalist, who retired in 2021 from the Vail Unified School District in Vail, Arizona, as a gifted education teacher.
Born in Queens, NY, Elizabeth Bradshaw moved to Tucson in 1980 upon graduation from the University of N.C. at Chapel Hill, for her first teaching position in Vail, AZ. From those early days, she would remain an elementary and gifted education teacher in the Vail Unified School District until her retirement in 2021, when she was recognized as the longest serving employee in the School District’s 120-year history.
One of the hallmarks of Bradshaw’s distinguished teaching career was infusing creative learning opportunities into classroom instruction by engaging students in unique activities and projects. She cultivated a relationship with the Collaboration to Advance Teaching Technology and Science program at the University of Arizona where her elementary gifted students participated in atmospheric and hydrology studies, geology, entomology and dendrochronology exploration and engineering experiments. Bradshaw also hosted several guest speakers from the University of Arizona and arranged field trips to enrich what students were learning.
She also recreated and revised the Vail District’s Gifted Program which led to piloting a program where all gifted students reported to a central school location to receive services. In this manner, all gifted materials were under one roof, allowing students to learn together, with Bradshaw and another teacher collaborating and team-teaching.
Bradshaw’s community accomplishments included 25 years of service as the coordinator for the Hands Across the Border Program, a student exchange program for Vail, Arizona, to increase cultural awareness and tolerance between the Vail community and the community of Carbo, Mexico.
In describing her teaching philosophy, Bradshaw explains that she creates a climate of trust, operating a democratic classroom where she encourages inquiry and builds a curriculum based on rigor and pace. She believes teachers should promote fairness and responsibility while holding high expectations for each student while instilling self-confidence to believe in their worth and power to craft their own future.
”Opening a fresh box of Crayola Crayons still gives me the same sensory thrill as it did when I was seven years old,” said Bradshaw. “I was the child who begged my teacher for spare dittos, extra Weekly Readers and broken red pencils. With these treasures, I would play teacher. My bedroom, transformed into a classroom, hosted neighborhood friends, dolls and stuffed animals as students.”
In addition to being named the 1991 Arizona Teacher of the Year® by the Arizona Educational Foundation, Bradshaw was also a semifinalist for the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 2012, the 2018 Arizona Council on Economic Education Teacher of the Year, and is the recipient of the 2001 ING Education’s Unsung Heroes Award for her work with Hands Across the Border. She is also a contributor to the “Magic School Bus Out of this World” book. Bradshaw holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education from UNC-Chapel Hill and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from Northern Arizona University. She has endorsements in Gifted Education, Early Childhood Education, Sheltered English Immersion, and a Teaching English as a Foreign Language certification.
Still calling Arizona home, Bradshaw has two children, Jacob and Eli, who are both married and soon to be first time fathers. She is a news junkie who loves to travel, bake, read, hike and spend time with family and friends. She is enjoying her retirement by exploring/recording family history, creating a backyard cactus garden and planning to learn Italian in Italy.
Andy Townsend is the 2023 recipient of the Arizona Educational Foundation (AEF®) Carolyn Warner Legacy Award. Townsend, a 2011 AEF Ambassador for Excellence (a finalist for the Arizona Teacher of the Year® Award), now serves as the Principal of Elvira Elementary School in the Sunnyside Unified School District #12.
Having served the Elvira community for over 16 years as a teacher, coach, and administrator, Townsend has dedicated his career to Elvira and is honored to represent the community. When Andy was named a 2011 AEF Ambassador for Excellence, he was a 5th grade teacher at Elvira, later becoming the school’s beloved principal. As an educator who values lifelong learning, Andy is currently working towards a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership, and mentors new administrators through the Arizona Educational Foundation, and Pima County School Superintendent’s Office. He is a frequent guest facilitator for AEF’s Principals Leadership Academy (PLAA) and has helped guide Elvira to maintain its A+ School of Excellence distinction, earning the recognition from 2017-2021, and again for 2022-2026. Andy has been recognized as the “Rookie Principal of the Year” (2015) by Arizona School Administrators; was a “40 Under 40” Honoree (2014) by the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and was named a Rodel Exemplary Teacher by the Rodel Foundation of Arizona.
While currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University, Andy also holds a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership from the University of Arizona, a Masters of Education in Elementary Education from the University of Phoenix, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Arizona.
In his personal time, Andy volunteers on non-profit boards, and enjoys running, reading, traveling, learning, UA sports, and spending time with friends and family. He is also an avid tree planting advocate, spearheading the addition of over 80 trees to beautify the Elvira campus.
Karen Butterfield is a recognized former teacher, administrator and public charter school founder. She is currently a State Level Technical Assistance Specialist with the Region 13 Comprehensive
Center (RG 13 CC) at WestEd, providing support to the Bureau of Indian Education and to the state departments of education in Oklahoma and New Mexico. Her prior educational policy background includes providing technical assistance and guidance to states on educator effectiveness priorities on the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO’s) Education Workforce team. Karen also served as associate superintendent overseeing Academic Achievement and the Highly Effective Teachers & Leaders Divisions for 10 years at the Arizona Department of Education between 2003-2013.
Karen earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees (educational leadership) from Northern Arizona University (NAU), graduating with distinction, including having been the recipient of an honorary doctorate. She has been recognized numerous times for her work in education, including having been named the 1993 Arizona Teacher of the Year®, the National Art Education Association’s Outstanding Teacher in the Southwest Region twice, A Disney America Teacher Honoree, NAU’s Outstanding Doctoral Student, the Governor’s Arts in Education Award (Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy: The Honorable Governor Jane Dee Hull), the Flinn Foundation’s Most Influential Educator (twice by two former students), including many other awards/recognitions.
Dr. Beth Maloney is a National Board Certified Teacher, the 2014 Arizona Teacher of the Year®, and spent the past twenty years teaching in the classroom. Beth is a passionate advocate for students, teachers, and quality education. She holds a doctorate in Higher and Post-secondary Education and was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Northern Arizona University. Beth is thrilled to bring her passion for arts education to a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to providing meaningful arts experiences to the students of Arizona as the Arts Education Director. Beth serves as a content designer and Fellow for AEF’s Our World program.
Dr. Pamela Roggeman is the of the College of Education at University of Phoenix. There, she has led the work of preparing thousands of teacher-candidates in numerous states satisfy credentialing requirements. This experience has included national partnerships helping to advance thought-leadership in the field of education. One such partnership is the collaboration with The National Network of State Teachers of the Year that resulted in two publications: A Social Justice Book List of annotated suggestions for teachers in K-12 classrooms, and another was the publication of a year-long study about what attracts and retains Black, Male educators to the education profession called “Having Our Say: Examining the Career Trajectories of Black Male Educators in P-12 Education.”
She has spent over a decade and a half in higher education teacher preparation in both the public sector at Arizona State University and in the private sector at University of Phoenix. Pam also serves as the president of the Arizona Educational Foundation’s Board of Directors.
Before Pam’s second career in teacher preparation, she was an award-winning high school English teacher for 18 years in Tucson, AZ. She was also a 1999 AZ Educational Foundation’s Ambassador of Excellence as a Top Five Finalist for Arizona Educational Foundation’s Teacher of the Year. She is a lifetime supporter of and believer in AZ Public Education.
