To earn the NGPF Distinguished Educator Award, teachers pass six or more in-depth NGPF Certification Courses. See which amazing educators Distinguished themselves after the latest cohorts!

What is the NGPF Distinguished Educator Award?

The NGPF Distinguished Educator Award is a feat of professional development in high-impact personal finance concepts.

To earn this award, teachers complete a combination of six or more NGPF Certification Courses. Each of their 6+ courses requires teachers to:

• participate in nine hours of live instruction to boost their content mastery in a core personal finance unit (e.g. Banking & Budgeting, Career, Investing) AND
• ace the corresponding 1-hour exam at the end of the cohort

If you're doing the math at home, the teachers we're celebrating today have each completed 60+ hours of targeted professional development, all about personal finance!

After the latest NGPF Certification Course cohorts, 57 educators now increase the ranks to 936 NGPF Distinguished Educators around the country, and as you'll see, around the world. Congratulations, thank you one and all, and see you in your next NGPF Certification Course!

Meet the Newly Crowned Distinguished Educators!

Tammy Alford from Quitman High School (MS)
Laura Bender from Hudson High School (NY)
Joanna Binette from Marshfield High School (MA)
Danielle Bonfig from Economic Policy Institute (AZ)
Salah Borji from New Century School (MN)
Danielle Bowles from Clinton Elementary School (MI)
Megan Bushnell from Box Elder School District (UT)
Michael Cannone from Scarsdale Middle School (NY)
Kimberly Cartledge from Lexington One (SC)
Ashley Causey from Hillcrest High School (SC)
Linli Chin from The Beekman School (NY)
Scott Colby from Beehive Science And Technology Academy (UT)
Caryn Connolly from Roberts High School (OR)
Laurie Donahue from Glastonbury High School (CT)
Nat Ellis from Klamath Union High School (OR)
Kayleigh Gaborek from Academy at Westinghouse (PA)
Zana Gojani (International)
Darilyn Gorton from Toll Gate High School (RI)
Nicol Guerrero from FLY Initiative (RI)
Khamphet Hecht from Kenilworth Elementary School (AZ)
Brian Hellenbrand from Mcfarland High School (WI)
Talya Holtzer from Scarsdale Middle School (NY)
Lauren Hoyt from Quora High School (MN)
Jeff Jackson from Scott High School (KY)
Sangeetha Janakiraman from Skyline High School (MI)
Amanda Jansen from East Noble High School (IN)
Brian Johnson from Forest Hills Northern High School (MI)
Julie Keane from Bradford Area High School (PA)
Elizabeth Kocharian from Bell Gardens High School (CA)
Kelci Koonce from New York University (NY)
Jennifer Lee from Ed W Clark High School (NV)
Ivette Leyva from Youth Co-Op Preparatory High School (FL)
Cary Libby from Central High School (ME)
Jessica Lowe from The Ohio State University (OH)
Ken MacBain from Nicaragua Christian Academy (International)
Sherri McGaffin from Exeter Township Senior High School (PA)
Yesenia Medrano from Linda Esperanza Marquez High B Libra Academy (CA)
Yelena Melnichenko from Integrated Arts And Technology High School (NY)
Suzanne Myers from Visions in Education (CA)
David Nakic from Cheyenne Mountain High School (CO)
Tyler Nutter from Spaulding High School (NH)
Elliot A. Pernell from Collegiate Academies (LA)
Caryn Peterson from Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical (MA)
Michelle Ramthun from Buena Vista University (IA)
Kathy Ricketts from Manhattan High School (KS)
Erica Rollosson from Curtis Senior High School (WA)
Sheila Sampson from Hamburg High School (NY)
Laura Simpson from Highland High School (NY)
Jiyoung Song from Andover High School (MA)
Jacob Staheli from Canyon View High School (Cedar City, UT)
Aaron Standish from School District of Palm Beach County (FL)
Joshua Swink from Louisiana
Bijoux Titabong from Laurel High School (MD)
Leslie Traver from Lyme-Old Lyme High School (CT)
Gerard Trimarco from High School For Math, Science And Engineering (NY)
Casey Woodruff from Little Miami High School (OH)
Lilly Zhou from Sharon Chinese School (MA)

Meet ALL the Distinguished Educators!

As of writing, there are 936 teachers from around the world who have earned this impressive distinction!

• Meet the Distingished Educators (earned Cohort 40, announced March 2024)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 39, announced January 2024)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 38, announced December 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 37, announced October 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Pilot Cohort, announced September 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohorts 35-36, announced August 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 34, announced July 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 33, announced June 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 32, announced May 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 31, announced April 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 30, announced February 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 29, announced January 2023)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 28, announced December 2022)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohort 27, announced November 2022)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohorts 25-26, announced September 2022)
• Meet the Distinguished Educators (earned Cohorts 1-24, announced July 2022)

About the Author

Christian Sherrill

Former teacher, forever financial education nerd. As NGPF's Director of Growth & Advocacy, Christian is laser-focused on our mission to guarantee all students a rigorous personal finance course before crossing the high school graduation stage. Having paid down over $40k in student loans in the span of 3 years - while living in the Bay Area on an entry level teacher's salary - he's eager to help the next generation avoid financial pitfalls one semester at a time.