ADA, Okla. – The 2023 Oklahoma Teacher of the year, Traci Manuel, will deliver East Central University’s 2023 Marvin Stokes Lecture on Monday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. in the Chickasaw Business and Conference Center on the ECU campus.
The event is free and open to the public.
Manuel is an English Language Arts Teacher at Booker T. Washington High School. Her teaching path began as a full-time graduate student where she studied the effects of the achievement gap on African American students. The results of her research motivated Manuel to return home to Tulsa where she began her career as a long-term substitute teacher before becoming a teacher assistant, a parent facilitator and eventually a certified classroom teacher in Tulsa Public Schools.
Area teachers of the year who are ECU Alumni will also be recognized during the lecture, including Amber Goodson, Allen Elementary School; Lesli Costner, Allen High School; Jami Graham, Byng School District; Melanie Kimbro, Davis School District; Brook Mason, McAlester School District; Nolan Pullen, Pauls Valley School District; Shirley Boatright, Roff School District; Roxanna Beggs, Shawnee School District; and Karla Banks, Wewoka School District.
The annual Marvin Stokes Lecture, named for the ECU alumnus and highly-regarded Byng superintendent, also serves as a platform to recognize scholarship award recipients in ECU’s Education department as well as an opportunity to celebrate district teachers of the year.
The Marvin Stokes Lectureship enhances ECU’s ability to expose students in the College of Education, and educators in the university service area, to ideas and trends on the state, national and international stages.
Funding for the event is provided by the annual earnings on funds dedicated to the Marvin Stokes Endowed Lectureship through the ECU Foundation Inc. and matched by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
For more information, contact Savannah Todd with ECU’s College of Education and Psychology at 580-559-5319 or by email at, savntod@ecok.edu.