This year, the Colorado Department of Education received more than 1,300 nominations for exceptional educators to participate in the Teacher of the Year application process – a record high for the program. Of those nominees, 94 educators completed the application process and seven have been named as finalists. The 2025 Colorado Teacher of the Year will be announced in October 2024.
Denver7 is a proud partner of the Colorado Teacher of the Year program.
Here’s a brief introduction to the seven finalists:
Janet Damon, History Teacher, DELTA High School, Denver Public Schools
Janet Damon has educated students in Denver Public Schools for more than 25 years. Her lessons focus on inquiry, research, digital storytelling, and culturally sustaining learning. She designs learning to help students think critically about challenges in their own lives. Her students imagine new solutions to problems in our state and create podcasts to advocate for issues like homelessness, gun violence, incarceration, inflation, immigration, racism, health disparities, and drug addiction in Colorado. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in History from Metropolitan State University, Master’s of Library and Information Science from the University of Denver, and Educational Specialist in Leadership for Educational Organizations from the University of Colorado at Denver.
Shelley Donnellon, Second Grade Teacher at Norwood Public Schools, Norwood School District
Shelley Donnellon is a second-grade teacher at Norwood Public Schools in the rural beauty of Norwood, Colo., her hometown. This isn’t just where she teaches – it’s where she grew up, where her kids are now, where her parents and even her grandparents went to school. She holds a Bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Northern Colorado and a Master’s in Reading from Grand Canyon University.
Tera Johnson-Swartz, English teacher, STEM School Highlands Ranch, Douglas County School District
Tera Johnson-Swartz, an English teacher at STEM School Highlands Ranch and has been an educator for two years. She specializes in building meaningful relationships with her students while also providing lessons remembered beyond her classroom. She tells her students from day one, that teaching wasn’t a career she had to take, but one she wanted to, humbly and with all of her heart. Johnson-Swartz
has a Bachelor of Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., and is earning her Master of Arts in English Composition and Rhetoric at Eastern Illinois University.
Amy Okimoto, Connections Coordinator at Summit Elementary School, Cherry Creek School District
Amy Okimoto leads efforts to build connectedness and belonging for students at Summit Elementary School. She is the co-facilitator for her district’s Asian American Pacific Islander Affinity Group. She has been working in education for 28 years and has taught in Arizona, Colorado, as well as in Nepal. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs with a minor in Asian Studies from Northern Arizona University and a master’s degree in cultural and linguistic diversity from Adams State University.
Ashley Smith, English Language Arts and Reading Intervention Teacher at Summit Middle School, Summit School District
Ashley Smith is a sixth grade English language arts and reading intervention teacher as well as a school-wide instructional coach at Summit Middle School in Frisco, Colo. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with a concentration in Early Childhood from Clarion University of Pennsylvania as well as a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction in Literacy from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Wanda Vasquez-Garcia, Music Teacher at Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer, Boulder Valley School District
Wanda Vásquez García is music teacher, children's choir director, advocate, author, and clinician and has been an educator for 11 years. A native of the Dominican Republic and resident of Colorado, she holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo and a Master's
Degree in Music Education with an emphasis on choral conducting from the University of Northern Colorado. She is the general music teacher at Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer in Lafayette and a National
Teacher Leader for the Connected Arts Networks Project – National Association for Music Educators.
Anthony Williams, Math Teacher at Wildflower Elementary School, Harrison School District 2
Anthony Williams is a fifth grade math teacher at Wildflower Elementary School, located in
Colorado Springs, Colo. Williams holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo. and an alternative teaching license from Pikes Peak BOCES in Colorado Springs, Colo. Williams’ approach to teaching is rooted in his belief that every student has the potential to excel in mathematics.
Each 2025 Teacher of the Year finalist will receive $1,500 funded by the Colorado Department of Education and the Boettcher Foundation. Thanks to funding from the Boettcher Foundation, each finalist’s school will also receive a donation of $500 to support educator recognition efforts. In addition, Blue Bell Ice Cream will provide ice cream for each school to hold an ice cream social event for their teachers and students.
Click here to learn more about the Colorado Department of Education and the Teacher of the Year program.
This article was paid for through an in-kind partnership.