The Presidential Award is one of the highest honors a teacher can receive acknowledging a teacher’s dedication and skill in science education. The Presidential awardees I know are phenomenal teachers who are passionate about sharing their knowledge with both their students and other teachers. They are my educational heroes and role models.

Vana Richards Emmett, ID | K-6, Science, 2010

The official biography below was current at the time of the award.

Vana Richards has been an educator for 40 years. She has spent the last 11 years teaching fifth grade at Carberry Intermediate School in the Emmett School District. Vana also taught at Emmett Junior High School and Horseshoe Bend Elementary School in Idaho, Ramey Air Force Base Junior High School in Puerto Rico, and Healdsburg Elementary School in California. Not only have Vana’s own students found excitement through discoveries using hands-on science inquiry, but every year 120-170 fourth through sixth grade students and their families explore and develop a love of science through Vana's afterschool science club and family science field trips. She also initiated and is team lead for her school’s NASA Explorer Schools program. Vana is past president of the Idaho State Science Teachers Association and was its 2009 State Conference Chair. She continues to serve on a variety of State boards and committees, working to teach teachers how to integrate science into the elementary curriculum. Vana has a B.A., cum laude, in art from Humboldt State University. She is lifetime certified in elementary through adult education in California and is a certified elementary teacher in Idaho.

Know a great teacher like Vana Richards?