Petal teacher surprised with $25,000 Milken Educator Award

PETAL, Miss. (WHLT) – A Petal High School teacher was named a 2019-2020 recipient of a Milken Educator Award. With the national recognition, Kathryn Daniels won a $25,000 cash prize.

On Tuesday, Daniels was honored in a surprise ceremony by Dr. Carey Wright, Mississippi Superintendent of Education, and Greg Gallagher, Milken Educator Awards Senior Program Director. She is the only Milken Educator Award winner from Mississippi this year and is among 40 honorees for 2019-20.

The co-leader of the PHS history department, Daniels collaborates with the school’s English teachers to align reading and writing across the curriculum. She enlivens her classes with maps and political cartoons and invites community leaders as guests, including Petal’s mayor.

“Kathryn Daniels has been an innovator and inspiration to her students, showing how history isn’t just a study of past events but that it informs the world around us,” said Gallagher. “As part of her process, she’s accelerated her students’ communicative abilities in ways that will benefit them going forward.”

“We are incredibly proud of Kathryn Daniels and the example she sets for her colleagues across Mississippi,” said Superintendent Wright. “She sets high expectations for her students and provides them with the support and help to meet, and exceed, those expectations. I join her students, school and community in congratulating Mrs. Daniels for earning national recognition for her achievements as an educator.”