12 Outstanding Educators Selected for National Institute for Excellence in Teaching’s 2025-2026 Fellows Program

Phoenix (May 20, 2025) — The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) is excited to announce its 2025-2026 Fellows Program cohort, comprised of 12 outstanding educators from across the country. These educators will learn alongside NIET in a one-year program to deepen their knowledge of instructional best practices to more effectively support the work taking place within and beyond their school and district. 

"I am excited to recognize these 12 outstanding educators as our 2025-2026 NIET Teacher Leader Fellows cohort,” said NIET CEO Dr. Joshua Barnett. “With the selection of this cohort of fellows, we expand upon NIET’s strong foundation of building excellence in schools nationwide. These exceptional educators represent a generation of teacher leaders who will expand their impact through this fellowship by strengthening instruction and accelerating student achievement in their schools, districts, and states.”

The NIET Fellows Program consists of dynamic teacher leaders from schools nationwide who demonstrate educator excellence with a proven ability to advance student success and model this ability to other educators. This year’s selected fellows are listed below:

1. Carin Hart, Alhambra Elementary School District, AZ
2. Danielle Helem, Tempe Elementary Schools, AZ
3. Emma Clay, Springdale Public Schools, AR
4. Jacinda Mapes, Hamilton Southeastern Schools, IN
5. Jamie Claywell, Nettle Creek School Corporation, IN
6. Molly Fritz, Saydel Community School District, IA
7. Breann Lavergne, Calcasieu Parish School Board, LA
8. Candace Shaidaee, Livingston Parish Public Schools, LA
9. Dominique O’Conner, South Baton Rouge Charter Academy, LA
10. Cherie Tan, Oak Ridge Schools, TN
11. Marco De La Rosa, Southwest Independent School District, TX
12. Michelle Esquivel, South San Antonio Independent School District, TX

As part of the fellowship, each will receive a $7,500 stipend, participate in professional development activities designed to enhance their leadership capabilities, and develop content for NIET’s national conferences throughout the year. Each fellow will also shadow NIET’s team locally to advance their coaching skills to more effectively support educators in their own schools and districts. 

To be eligible for the NIET Fellows Program, applicants must be a teacher leader and have at least five years of classroom experience and/or experience supporting other educators. The program will run from July 2025 through June 2026. The fellows this year were selected from a competitive application pool from across the nation. 

For more information about the NIET Fellows Program, please visit niet.org. 

About NIET

For 25 years, NIET has worked in developing teacher leaders, supporting successful instructional strategies, and building educator capacity to address student needs. NIET partners with schools, districts, states, and universities to ensure all students have effective educators. Through these partnerships, NIET has served more than 11,000 schools and has impacted more than 350,000 educators and 3.5 million students.