AOE State Director of Career Technical Education, Ruth Durkee, is one of two recipients of the prestigious Heart and Hope Award, presented by the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, a consortium of state and local agencies, corporations, and national organizations, providing professional development, technical assistance, research and evaluation, and advocacy, to help increase student access, educational equity, and workforce diversity in the educational field.
Durkee will be honored at the National Summit for Educational Equity in Washington, DC on Tuesday, March 18. She was selected because she, "inspire(s) others by believing in the power of innovation while embodying a hopeful tenacity about solving challenging problems."
Durkee has worked in Vermont's education field since 1999, and has been the AOE's CTE director since April of 2020.
The NAPE Heart and Hope Award is intended "to honor a person who has managed major projects or programs with hope, works intentionally with heart and has made a major impact by ensuring that students have access to careers that lead to high-wage, high-skill, in-demand programs of study and careers. This person inspires others by believing in the power of innovation and embodying a hopeful tenacity about solving challenging problems."