Florida teacher Lizbet Martinez immigrated to US as a 12-year-old

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Florida teacher Lizbet Martinez fled the repressive Castro regime and came to the United States on a raft when she was just a child. Photo credit: The Buffalo News

Many dedicated educators can share a personal history of overcoming great adversity. One of these is Lizbet Martinez, an elementary school teacher who, when she was just a child, fled the repressive Castro regime on a raft to immigrate to the United States.

Lizbet was only 12 years old when she braved the dangers of the sea on nothing more than a raft to flee to this country from her home island of Cuba. She was one of more than 30,000 Cubans who made this treacherous journey during what is known as the “balsero crisis” of 1994. Lizbet and her family were plucked from the waters by the US Coast Guard on Aug. 21, 1994. At the time, the child was clutching a violin case, which the Americans discussed confiscating because they believed the case might contain a weapon. To prove them wrong, Lizbet opened the case, pulled out her violin, and began to play The Star Spangled Banner. Before the family fled the Castro regime in Cuba, she was studying violin at Alejandro Garcia Caturla Conservatory in Havana.  After their rescue, the Martinez family and other refugees spent five months at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base before being relocated to Miami.

When she grew up, Lizbet enrolled at Florida International University in Miami. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education in 2003. Cuban-American singer Willy Chirino offered her with a $3,000 scholarship to help pay for her college expenses. At her college graduation, she was asked to perform the National Anthem to open the school’s commencement ceremonies. Later, Lizbet performed with music stars Gloria Estefan and Jon Secada. She also performed for presidents Bill Clinton and George H. Bush.

Once she earned her degree, the aspiring teacher completed her student teaching assignment at Emerson Elementary School in Westchester, Florida, and at Coral Reef High School in Miami. At the grade school, she taught basic music skills. At the high school, a magnet school for teenagers interested in music, she conducted the string orchestra.

Lizbet currently teaches at M.A. Milam K-8 Center, where she taught music until budget cuts cancelled the school’s music program. She now instructs courses in English.

To read more about this remarkable educator, see this story published about her by The Buffalo News.

Houston STEM teacher Arquala Davis named HAABSE’s 2026 Secondary Teacher of the Year

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STEM teacher Arquala Davis of Houston, Texas, has been named the 2026 Secondary Teacher of the Year by HAABSE. Photo credit: Arquala Davis

Many deserving teachers earn recognition for their outstanding work with young people. One of them is Arquala Davis, a STEM teacher from Houston, Texas. She has been named the 2026 Secondary Teacher of the Year by the Houston Area Alliance of Black School Educators (HAABSE).

Arquala teaches STEM courses at Dwight D. Eisenhower High School, a public school fondly referred to as “Big Ike” in the Aldine Independent School District in Houston, Texas. There she instructs courses in Chemistry, Earth and Space, and Biology sciences. She has worked at the school for four years.

In her classroom, Arquala emphasizes creating hands-on, student-driven curriculum that encourages exploration and generates discussion. “I spark curiosity by allowing students to lead their own learning and connect science to their everyday experiences,” she says. “Through labs, activities, and meaningful discussions about scientific phenomena, students begin to see how science is already part of their lives,” she continues. “Students do science every day without even realizing it. The exciting part is helping them understand what they’ve already discovered,” she concludes.

Her award from HAABSE is not the only recognition Arquala has earned. She was honored as the Rookie Teacher of the Year at Big Ike in 2022, and she garnered the Dean’s Dozen Award that same year. In addition, she was named the Austin Outstanding Student from the University of Texas in 2022. 

Arquala earned her Bachelor’s degree in Health and Society from the University of Texas at Austin in 2022. She earned her Master’s degree in Public Health with an emphasis in Epidemiology and Data Science from UTHealth Houston in 2026.

The mission of the HAABSE is to uplift educators, enhance opportunities for all students, and celebrate outstanding service. The organization honors teachers across the Greater Houston area for their exceptional commitment to students, schools, and communities.

Louisiana elementary teacher Regena Beard named her state’s 2026 Teacher of the Year

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Elementary STEM teacher Regena Beard has been named Louisiana State’s 2026 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: CCSSO

Every year, many exceptional educators are singled out for honors in recognition for their dedicated work in our nation’s public schools. One of these is Regena Beard, an elementary school teacher from Louisiana. She has been named her state’s 2026 Teacher of the Year.

Regena teaches courses in science, STEM, and robotics to fifth and sixth graders at Copper Mill Elementary School in the town of Zachary. To further support her students’ exploration of STEM studies, she founded both a Robotics Club and a Coding Club on her campus. In addition, she serves on the Teacher Advisory Council in her district.

As part of her curriculum in her fifth-grade class, Regena’s students explore how matter moves through the ecosystem. They study the cycle of moving from plant producers to animal consumers to decomposers and back into the soil that enriches plants. As part of their study, Regina’s students create animations through block coding on lab computers. “Students are very excited to engage in the content in this way,” she declares. “We certainly don’t do integration with every assignment because you have to teach them how to code first, but we pick and choose what assignments lend themselves to integration,” she explains.

Regena earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Southeastern Louisiana University in 2004. She earned her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a Concentration in STEM from Louisiana State University, Shreveport, in 2023.

In addition to her State Teacher of the Year honors, Regena garnered a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) in 2022, and that same year she was named Outstanding Science Teacher of the Year by the Louisiana Science Teachers Association. Her career as an educator spans 21 years.

Iowa educator Mildred Wood: A trailblazer in the field of Special Ed

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Iowa educator Mildred Wood was a trailblazer in the field of Special Education. Photo credit: Iowa State University

There are many trailblazing educators who have worked diligently for the rights of others in our nation’s public schools. One of these is Mildred H. Wood, an Iowa teacher who campaigned tirelessly for the rights of students with special needs.

Mildred was born on April 19, 1920, in Alta, Iowa. After her graduation from Humboldt High School in 1937, she enrolled at the University of Northern Iowa, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1956, her Master’s degree in 1962, and a post-graduate degree as an Education Specialist in 1963. She earned her PhD from the University of Indiana in 1970. She completed additional courses in child psychology and learning processes from Syracuse University and the University of Oregon.

Mildred inaugurated her career as an educator in the Rowley Consolidated School System in Iowa in 1939. She taught first and second graders that year, a year she considered a personal failure because she felt unable to help one of her students who had both vision and hearing impairments.

As a result of these personal experiences in the classroom and her subsequent pedagogical studies, Mildred went on to become a pioneer in the field of special education in Iowa. In the 1960’s, she became an expert in the recognition and instruction of learning disabilities, emphasizing early identification and tailoring interventions. She developed and taught courses on learning disabilities and integrated principles of child psychology into teacher training programs. She emphasized diagnostic testing and individualized learning strategies for those who had been previously mislabeled or overlooked.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Mildred was also an author and a newspaper column writer. She published a column entitled “Parents and Learning Disabilities” for the Waterloo Courier, and developed policy when she was appointed to the Governor’s Task Force on Education.

For her work on behalf of special needs students, Mildred garnered multiple honors and awards. She was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011, and later that year garnered a 2012 UNI Outstanding Alumnus Award. She also earned the President’s Award from the Iowa Association for Children and Youth with Learning Disabilities, and received the highest honor from Iowa’s Commission of Persons with Disabilities.

Mildred Wood passed away on July 6, 2014. She was 94 years old. She is interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Cedar Falls, Iowa.