English/Language Arts teacher Kathryn Locke-Jones has been named the Maryland State teacher of the Year for 2024-2025. (Photo credit: Kathryn Locke-Jones)

There are many dedicated educators working in our nation’s schools who are deserving of accolades. One of them is Kathryn Locke-Jones, a junior high school teacher who has been named Maryland’s State Teacher of the Year for 2024-2025.

Kathryn, who is often called Kat, teaches English/Language Arts to seventh graders at Hampstead Hill Academy in Baltimore, Maryland. In the years she has taught there, she initiated the school’s National History Day program and launched a writing center to support multi-lingual learners. And her efforts have garnered remarkable results. Her students have earned the highest seventh grade score on state assessments for five years in a row. Kat has taught in Baltimore City Public Schools for 12 years.

Kat says she is passionate about creating safe spaces for her students and helping them find their voice so they can tell their stories. She believes that a teacher’s greatest honor is to hand students a pen.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Kat co-founded SL24, a nonprofit foundation to educate, assist, and support students with their mental health. Her work has created a positive impact on more than 90,000 educators. Since 2019, SL24 has raised more than $4 million for mental health education and created Sean’s House, a  free 24/7 mental health safe haven for young adults between the ages 14 and 24. Since its opening in 2020, more than 32,000 people have been served by Sean’s House.

Garnering the State Teacher of the Year award is not the only honor Kat has earned. In 2019 she was named a 2019 Kennedy Leadership Award Winner for Excellence in Teaching, in recognition of having a profound impact with students and communities.

Kat earned her Bachelor’s degree in English Education from the University of Delaware in 2013. She earned her Master’s degree in education from Johns Hopkins University in 2015.