3 Teachers Who Have Turned Around Students' Lives Named as 2004 Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Award Winners.

CHICAGO -- Three teachers who have changed children's lives have been selected to receive the Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Awards, given for the first time at the Turnaround Management Association's Annual Convention in New York on October 18. The teachers, who were selected from 70 nominees, will receive $5,000 cash stipends funded by the John William Butler Foundation, plus transportation to and lodging for the convention. The Turnaround Management Association (TMA) is the only international nonprofit whose members are dedicated to corporate renewal and changing the outcome of under-performing businesses.

The recipients of the Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Awards are:

Louis Armin-Hoiland

A biology teacher and facilitator of Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) classes, Arcata High School, Arcata, Calif., Armin-Hoiland uses real-world projects to inspire students to care for the earth's environment and to engage them in independent learning. He founded the Community Environmental Design and Restoration (CEDAR) program, whose student-centered service projects have given many students the sense of purpose and direction they were searching for. Beginning 15 years ago with the restoration of a creek system near the school that had been nearly destroyed by urban growth, Armin-Hoiland and his students have restored the environmental integrity of the entire watershed in their area. Judges credited him for being a role model for students in how extraordinary accomplishments can be achieved by working within the system and in restoring value to the community.

Patricia Gonzalez

Parents who nominated this kindergarten teacher at King Elementary School, Akron, Ohio, said that "no child would be left behind if they all started kindergarten with Patty Gonzalez." Her exceptional skills in adapting learning experiences to meet the needs of each student - from gifted high achievers to those with autism, behavioral disorders and other disabilities - make Gonzalez an especially effective teacher. She believes in engaging students through all of their senses, helping them become the "engineers of their own learning." From using songs to help them retain information, through "reading parties" and cooking sessions, Gonzalez' innovative techniques are carefully focused on teaching the basics of math, science, reading and writing, as well as the inherent lesson in every project - respect for other human beings and for the Earth. Judges said her influence reaches well beyond the classroom and touches young lives in such a special way that when other teachers are forgotten, students will always remember their first learning experiences with "Mrs. G."

Kathy Nimmer

An English and creative writing teacher at William Henry Harrison High School in West Lafayette, Ind., Kathy Nimmer's Number 1 item in her teaching philosophy is "all students can learn." She believes her job is to take the students from where they are when they enter her classroom and advance them by "illuminating the next step into cognitive and experiential investigation." Having lost her eyesight as a child, she is a model in not only how to overcome the challenges of a disability but also to use it as a tool to foster acceptance and equality. She creates a classroom environment of creative, verbal interaction and allows no one to withdraw into indifferent silence. One example from a long list of students Nimmer has inspired is a girl who sustained a serious brain injury in an auto accident. Nimmer developed a modified correspondence course by e-mail so the girl could earn her English credit and graduate after months of recovery at home. Nimmer also reaches out to a wider audience - from kindergarten students to business executives - through her motivational speaking.

The Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Award was established in 2004 to recognize classroom teachers who have demonstrated exceptional dedication and skill in shaping and influencing children's lives through education. The teachers must be currently licensed and active in teaching in an accredited public or private educational institution and have at least five years' teaching experience. It is funded by a five-year grant from the John William Butler Foundation and is named in honor of Leslie Bender Butler and Cindy Butler Cooley, who have collectively spent more than half a century as teachers.

This year's judges were:

--Gerald P. (Jerry) Buccino, a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP); Chairman and CEO of Buccino & Associates, Inc., in New York; and a past chairman of the Turnaround Management Association. His belief in the importance of education led to the endowment of a scholarship at Seton Hall University's Center for Leadership Studies.

--Judith B. Davis, APR, Mideast Region Vice President of the National School Public Relations Association. She is an accredited public relations professional for Chesterfield County Public Schools, a 55,000-student school division in central Virginia.

--Joan E. Schmidt, President-elect of the National School Boards Association, from Fairfield, Montana. She is a powerful spokesperson for public education, having appeared on NBC's Today Show and before the U.S. House of Representatives Education Caucus.

--Sheila T. Smith, a Principal of Deloitte & Touche LLP in Boston and Vice President of Education for the Turnaround Management Association is a former special education teacher.

With its international headquarters in Chicago, the Turnaround Management Association (www.turnaround.org) has 6,800 members in 34 regional chapters worldwide who comprise a professional community of turnaround practitioners, attorneys, accountants, investors, lenders, venture capitalists, appraisers, liquidators, executive recruiters and consultants. Members adhere to a Code of Ethics specifying high standards of professionalism, integrity and competence.