Elementary teacher Ashley Barefoot of Mississippi has been named her state’s 2025-2026 teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Mississippi Association for Gifted Children
Every year, an outstanding educator from each state is named that state’s Teacher of the Year. This year, Ashley Barefoot, an elementary public school teacher, is serving as Mississippi’s honoree.
Ashley teaches at Longleaf Elementary School in the Lamar County School District in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In her classroom, she designs curriculum that facilitates discovery opportunities and teaches her students skills need to become lifelong learners. She develops lessons on how to write computer code, how to read and write in Braille, and how to solve Rubik’s cubes. In addition, she conducts school-wide service projects that honor veterans and military families.
“I want my students learning something new every week—whether it’s a concept, a strategy, or a way of thinking about the world,” declares Ashley. “We mix logic puzzles and challenges with open-ended projects that promote a growth mindset, creativity, and perseverance,” she continues.
In addition to her work with elementary students, Ashley has led professional development in Gifted Education at statewide workshops. She has also been involved in developing materials for Teaching with Primary Sources, and she has served as an online course facilitator for the Right Question Institute.
In 2000, Ashely earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Southern Mississippi. While there, she studied in England for one year and backpacked around Europe for two summers. After earning her degree, she served in an after-school program as a member of AmeriCorps VISTA, and that’s where she discovered her passion for the teaching profession. Later Ashley her Master’s degree in Elementary Education from William Carey University, and she is also National Board Certified. Her career as a classroom educator spans 23 years, and she has taught Gifted Education for the last 19 of them.
As a lifelong learner, Ashely was named a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks Scholar. As part of this program, she visited Walden Pond while reading Thoreau; dug into archaeology and American Indian culture in Mesa Verde National Park; explored the concept of wilderness in the Adirondack Mountains; and studied the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi. Furthermore, she analyzed environmental history in Boulder, Colorado with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in 2013; served as an Earthwatch Teach Earth Fellow in Costa Rica in 2010; and spent a month backpacking in the Olympic Mountains with the National Outdoor Leadership School in 2009.
To learn more about Ashley Barefoot, click on this link to her personal website.
