May 2026 | Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence

OKLAHOMA CITY — Thirty-seven Oklahoma educators will immerse themselves in early American history this summer at the Bob and Marion Wilson Teacher Institute of Colonial Williamsburg.

The teachers were selected to receive fellowships to the renowned teacher institute, held in and around Williamsburg, Virginia. The restored capital city of 18th-century Virginia is considered the world’s largest living history museum.

At the teacher institute, educators interact with character interpreters, participate in hands-on activities and collaborate with a facilitator on developing lesson plans and interactive teaching techniques.

The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence coordinates the selection of educators from the state for fellowships that cover program activities, airfare, lodging and most meals. Each attendee also receives a $300 stipend for classroom materials.

“We’re proud to work with the teacher institute to facilitate this exceptional professional development experience for our Oklahoma educators,” said OFE Executive Director Elizabeth Inbody. “This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for them to immerse themselves in 18th-century history and learn alongside their peers.”

2025 attendee Ashleigh Schaffer, who teaches at El Reno Public Schools’ Etta Dale Junior High, said the teacher institute gave her the tools to bring history to life in engaging, meaningful ways.

“By learning directly from historians and interacting with historical interpreters, I gained new strategies to teach primary sources, encourage critical thinking and create lessons that connect students to the people, events and ideas that shaped our nation,” Schaffer said.

The 2026 sessions will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with the theme “Revolutionary Roots: Teaching Civic Engagement at 250.”

Oklahoma’s fifth grade teacher institute will take place May 31-June 5, while the eighth grade teachers will be visiting from June 7-12.

OFE, a nonpartisan nonprofit that recognizes and encourages academic excellence in Oklahoma’s public schools, has coordinated Oklahoma’s participation in the teacher institute since 1993. The program is made possible through the leadership and support of the late Oklahoma City businessman Edward C. Joullian III. Joullian was an active supporter and former board member of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and an OFE trustee. Joullian’s family, along with a group of loyal donors, continues to support the fellowship program, which has served 1,262 Oklahoma teachers since 1993.

Fifth Grade Fellowship Recipients

Mandy Bonadonna, Elgin Middle School

Madison Boswell, Willard Grade Center (Ada)

Natilee Clayton, Overholser Elementary School (Putnam City)

Carol Conrad, Jarman Elementary School (Union)

Caleb Davis, Westwood Elementary School (Stillwater)

Stacy Doughty, Plainview Intermediate School

Alexandra Elliott, Windsor Hills Elementary School (Putnam City)

Amy Fetters, Willard Grade Center (Ada)

Susan McGill, Westside Elementary School (Claremore)

Emma McQueen, Nichols Upper Elementary School (Miami)

Hunter Najera, Mayo Demonstration School (Tulsa)

Janet Neal, McAuliffe Elementary School (Union)

Shelby Nobles, Arbor Grove Elementary School (Putnam City)

Monica Peevyhouse, Frederick Elementary School

Jennifer Ragland, McAuliffe Elementary School (Union)

Kristin Reid, Elgin Middle School

Phoebe Smith, Jenks East Intermediate School

Jessica Smith, Welch Elementary School

Beth Sprague, St. John Nepomuk Catholic School

Justin Trujillo, Sequoyah Upper Elementary School

Madeline VanDover, Apple Creek Elementary School (Moore)

Terisha Wade, Stuart Elementary School

Nancy Weber, Rosa Parks Elementary School (Union)

MaryAnne Whetstone, Roblyer Middle School (El Reno)

Nichole Whitley, Westwood Elementary School (Stillwater)

Shanna Willis, Sallie Gillentine Elementary School (Hollis)

Diane Wood, Lincoln Elementary School (Norman)

Eighth Grade Fellowship Recipients

Heather Braucher, Pryor Middle School

April Carter, Spiro Middle School

Mallory Hawkins, Riverfield Country Day School

Gina Huff, Spiro Upper Elementary School

Matthew Jobe, Ewing Halsell Middle School (Vinita)

Sasha Kirkpatrick, Alva Middle School

Amy Miller, Comanche High School

Rebekah Newman, Nicoma Park Middle School (Choctaw-Nicoma Park)

Mary Robertson, Fargo-Gage High School

Ashleigh Schaffer, Etta Dale Junior High School (El Reno)

OKLAHOMA CITY — Fourteen Oklahoma educators will embark on self-designed professional development experiences this summer after receiving fellowships from Fund for Teachers.

The teachers selected for 2026 fellowships are Jennifer Addison, Union Public Schools; Lauryl Bennington, Jones Public Schools; Stephen Biggs, Tulsa Technology Center; Amanda Bowser, Broken Arrow Public Schools; Tina Casey, Elmore City-Pernell Public Schools; Olga Caulfield, Moore Norman Technology Center; William Ferguson, Bixby Public Schools; Kylee Graumann, Moore Public Schools; Shelly Hale, Edmond Public Schools; Kristyne Hamilton, Union Public Schools; Catherine Johnson, Elmore City-Pernell Public Schools; Akash Patel, Epic Charter Schools; Sarah Rhodes, Union Public Schools; and Julie Valsaint, Wagoner Public Schools.

Oklahoma’s grants are made possible through a partnership between Fund for Teachers, the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence and the Tulsa Community Foundation.

“We are proud to support this incredible opportunity for our Oklahoma educators,” said Elizabeth Inbody, OFE executive director. “We love watching educators design innovative professional development experiences that reflect a deep understanding of their students’ needs. The impact of these fellowships will be felt in Oklahoma classrooms for years to come.”

The grants are available to Oklahoma educators who teach pre-K through 12th grade. Individual teachers may apply for up to $5,000, while teams may apply for up to $10,000 in grant funds.

OFE is a statewide, nonpartisan nonprofit that recognizes and encourages academic excellence in Oklahoma’s public schools. The foundation elevates public education through esteemed honors, mentoring grants, support for public school foundations and partnerships that provide exceptional professional development to educators.

Oklahoma’s 2026 Fund for Teachers Fellows

Amanda Bowser, Broken Arrow Public Schools

Bowser will attend the Building Thinking Classrooms Summer Institute in Davis, California, to engage in an immersive experience centered on implementing the 14 Building Thinking Classroom practices in Mathematics and strengthen student thinking through collaboration.

William Ferguson, Bixby Public Schools

Ferguson plans to volunteer with youth and young adults with severe disabilities through International Volunteer Headquarters in Cordoba, Argentina, to deepen understanding about Hispanic language and culture, learn how other countries serve individuals with disabilities and strengthen personal abilities required to effectively advocate for school students and families.

Tina Casey and Catherine Johnson, Elmore City-Pernell Public Schools

Casey and Johnson plan to research across England, Scotland and France the lives of William Shakespeare and other literary giants to highlight how great authors shape cultures across centuries and demonstrate that curiosity, scholarship and ambition can take them anywhere.

Akash Patel, Epic Charter Schools

Patel will investigate Asian elephant conservation and biodiversity practices across India, Nepal and Thailand to create interdisciplinary STEAM and global citizenship lessons that empower students to tackle real-world environmental challenges.

Lauryl Bennington, Jones Public Schools

Bennington plans to strengthen her language proficiency through the Spanish in the City immersive program in Mexico City to enhance communication with Spanish-speaking students and create an inclusive and equitable learning environment where all students feel seen, supported and empowered.

Olga Caulfield, Moore Norman Technology Center

Caulfield will enroll in a course through Europass in Valencia, Spain, about connecting classrooms to real-world environments through experiential and place-based teaching methods to create curriculum that motivate physics and engineering students to stay engaged, think beyond their immediate surroundings, and be inspired to take risks and explore new possibilities.

Kylee Graumann, Moore Public Schools, and Shelly Hale, Edmond Public Schools

Leveraging the grit of an “Oklahoma Strong” community as the foundation, Graumann and Hale will investigate Iceland’s leadership in alternative energy through documentation of the positive human impact these systems provide to inspire students to view their heritage as a bridge to a sustainable future.

Stephen Biggs, Tulsa Technology Center, and Julie Valsaint, Wagoner Public Schools

Biggs and Valsaint will embark on a tour across America investigating how two of America’s greatest inventors, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, came up with their inventions, and do some personal inventing at the Yestermorrow Design Build School in Waitsfield, Vermont, to better understand the thought process of early American inventors and bring that knowledge back to tech ed and manufacturing classrooms.

Jennifer Addison and Sarah Rhodes, Union Public Schools

Addison and Rhodes will explore literacy’s connection to history through a multi-stop, immersive road trip to historic sites related to America’s 250th birthday to deepen contextual understanding and create rich literacy lessons that enhance vocabulary and student background knowledge with representation in mind.

Kristyne Hamilton, Union Public Schools

Hamilton will research in Austria, Italy and Germany the heritage of prisoners of war during World War II who worked on farms less than 20 miles from the school to create a third-grade unit that uses oral histories to connect the ideological shifts of these specific laborers to the Oklahoma Standard and modern natural resource management.