Shanna L. Peeples is the Dr. John G. O’Brien Distinguished Chair in Education at

West Texas A&M University West Texas A&M University (WTAMU or WT) is a public university in Canyon, Texas. It is the northernmost campus of the Texas A&M University System and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). It was established on Se ...

. She was the 2015 National Teacher of the Year.

Education

Peeples has a B.A. in English from West Texas A&M University (1997), an M.Ed. from the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of Te ...

(2013), and a Ph.D from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(2020).

Career

Peeples had multiple jobs before she began teaching, starting with a 7th grade class. By 2011 she was teaching at

Palo Duro High School Palo Duro High School is a school located in the city of Amarillo, Texas, United States, and is one of four high schools in the Amarillo Independent School District. As of the 2016–17 school year, it has 2,075 students. The school was named afte ...

in Texas. In 2015, Peeples was named

National Teacher of the Year The National Teacher of the Year is a professional award in the United States. The program began in 1952, as a project by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and aims to reward excellence in teaching. It is sponsored by ING. Se ...

, and was presented her award by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. In 2020 she was named the Dr. John G. O’Brien Distinguished Chair in Education at West Texas A&M University. Peeples has spoken against arming teachers in the classroom and advocates for

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

marriage.

Selected publications

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References

Living people West Texas A&M University alumni University of Texas at Arlington alumni Harvard University alumni American women educators West Texas A&M University faculty Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-edu-bio-stub