2021 Teacher of the Year

Brooke Brown is the 2021 Washington State Teacher of the Year. She taught high schoolers English and Ethnic Studies at Washington High School, in the Franklin Pierce School District, for 15 years. She is currently in her third year serving as the District’s Instructional Equity Specialist.

Brooke uses her classroom to create a brave, inclusive environment for students to show up authentically by modeling it herself. She teaches her students about radical self-love and the need to cultivate an understanding of their identity as a prerequisite to developing empathy and compassion for others. She also realizes the need to impact the system in order to positively affect her students and the teaching profession. As a powerful voice for equity in her district, she leads professional developments on equity, restorative practices, critical mindfulness, healing-centered pedagogy, and radical dreaming. She facilitates work on community responsive well-being for educators and students, helped to start up a restorative justice center at the high school and supports new educators of color. She believes that learning is done best in community and works to center student experiences and reminds them how much she learns from them too. She has a master’s degree in Education from Pacific Lutheran University and 2 Bachelor’s degrees in Sociology, History and American Ethnic Studies from University of Washington-Seattle. She is currently a Doctoral student in her second year. She is committed to our students, her colleagues, and the teaching profession and gives 100% to everything she does.