The Presidential Award acknowledges the recognition and celebration of hard work by educators within and outside the classroom. Humbled to have been selected for this prestigious award, I would like to thank my students, colleagues, parents, and family, for together they supported my passion in maximizing the opportunities that I had to empower my students—preparing them to care about the world and those within it so they could learn the importance of knowledge and of how to make a difference.

LoriAnn Pawlik Woodbridge, VA | K-6, Science, 2018

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

LoriAnn "Lori" Pawlik, a public school teacher for seven years, will be serving as Assistant Principal at Kerrydale Elementary starting this fall. She previously taught all subjects to first, third, and fourth grades, as well as kindergarten through fifth grade STEM for seven years at Penn Elementary School. Communicating a passion for STEM to excited students, Lori has led Project Lead the Way modules, coached First LEGO League Robotics teams, brought students outside to observe and create journals, and led a before-school STEM club. She has used National Geographic resources and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) satellite data in her lessons and initiated the school's first science fair and family STEAM night. Lori has presented on STEM at multiple educational levels. She was also selected as Prince William County Schools 2018 Science Teacher of the Year. Lori earned a B.S. in physics from the University of Washington, a M.S. in education with Elementary Teacher Certification from Old Dominion University, and a certificate in K-12 educational leadership from James Madison University. She is a National Geographic Certified Educator and has a NASA Endeavor certificate in STEM education from Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition, LoriAnn is certified in kindergarten through sixth grade education.

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