Mandi de Witte with her award posing with Susan Johnson, academic coordinator and Lecturer for CalTeach in the Teacher Education Program and Department of Education
Mandi de Witte, alumna of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, was named Ventura Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year. She was presented with the honor at the 19th Annual Poinsettia Awards Luncheon held in Ventura on December 10. The program for the award claims, “Her ability to teach and motivate children of all ages is unsurpassed.”
de Witte’s teaching, leadership, and enthusiasm brought her to the Will Rogers Two-Way Immersion School of Environmental Science, where she leads their STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) magnet school implementation, not only teaching science to elementary students but also training teachers. In addition to all her teaching duties, she also voluntary coaches a 75-member cross-country team. She is also a lead teacher in the South Coast Science Project, a UC Santa Barbara-based center providing professional development for teachers in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties through a variety of programs that assist teachers in the delivery of the content of the Science Standards to their students.
Mandi de Witte, nee Gascoigne, earned her single subject teaching credential and M.Ed. from UCSB’s Teacher Education Program in 2010. Her undergraduate degree is also from UCSB in microbiology.