High school science teacher Joel Truesdell has been inducted into the 2024 class of the National Teachers Hall of Fame. Photo Credit: NTHF
There are many exceptional educators who have spent their careers working in American schools. One of these is Joel Truesdell, a science teacher from the state of Hawaii. For his work in the classroom, Joel has been inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame (NTHF).
Now retired, Joel’s career as an educator spanned 34 years. He taught chemistry courses at Kamehameha High School, a private school for Native Hawaiians located in Keanu, Hawaii, from 1987 to 2021. There he worked tirelessly to integrate aspects of Native Hawaiian culture into his lessons and labs. He spent the final year of his career at Tuba City Middle School, a Bureau of Indian Education school in the Navajo Nation of Arizona.
In 1991, Joel founded the Hawaiian culture-based Kamehameha Summer Science Institute in Organic Chemistry of Hawaiian Medicinal Plants, (KSSI). In this program, high school students isolated the bioactive components from medicinal plants identified by legendary Hawaiian traditional healer Papa Henry Auwae, who was recognized in 1997 as a Living Treasure of Hawai‘i. In 2012, Joel added a koa reforestation project along with other cultural practices to his 10th grade Chemistry classes.
Joel’s inauguration into the NTHF is not the only recognition Joel has earned. He garnered the National Science Teachers Association’s Shell Science Teaching Award in 2017. He was the winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST) in the state of Hawaii in 2002.
Joel earned both his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and his Master’s degrees in Organic Chemistry, both from the University of Maui. He earned his PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, in 1987.
The NTHF was founded in 1989 by Emporia State University. The program recognizes dedicated and successful educators throughout the United States through an annual induction ceremony. Located on Emporia State University campus in Kansas, the Hall of Fame honors teachers through a gallery of previous honorees, a Wall of Fame, a museum, and resource center that records the history of education through antique textbooks and other artifacts.
To read more about Joel, click on this link to an article about him published by Kamehameha Schools. To read more about the NTHF, click on this link to their website.
