By Staff
Jason Cannon
Franklin County Times
Nearly 2000 miles away from the halls she used to roam as a high school student in Franklin County, Judy Brown reached the pinnacle of professional success Friday.
Brown, a Franklin County native and Vina High School graduate, was named the 2008 Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) National Teacher of the Year during an award ceremony at the group's Annual Convention in Las Vegas.
She is a graduate of Vina High School, the University of North Alabama and Webster University. Judy is married to Lt. Col. Robert L. Brown, USAF retired and is the daughter of Jack Hellums and the late Letha Hellums. The Browns have two children, Joseph and Ashley.
The purpose of the ACTE Teacher of the Year award is to recognize dedicated educators who are providing students with real opportunities to have successful futures. Recipients of this award must have made significant contributions toward innovative programs that promote academic achievement.
In May 2006, Brown, the former Culinary Arts teacher at Madison City's Bob Jones High School, was named Alabama's Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher of the Year. This gave her the opportunity to compete against the winners of Alabama's other career/technical education (CTE) program categories, which are Business/Marketing, Health Science, Agriscience, Career Technologies, and Technical Education.
One month later, Brown was named Alabama's Outstanding Career/Technical Teacher of the Year, winning over five other highly qualified state nominees. This win, at the state level, gave her the chance to compete against all of the nominees from ACTE's Region II conference.
Two months ago, in October, Brown who now is an Education Specialist with the Alabama Department of Education, won the Region II Teacher of the Year award, and Raines was named the Region II Outstanding New Career and Technical Teacher.