Hammond High School teacher Jody Zepp has been named the 2014-2015 Maryland Teacher of the Year by the Maryland State Department of Education.
Zepp, who was named Howard County Public School System Teacher of the Year last spring, also received the Washington Post’s Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award for the county, and was the second HCPSS teacher in three years to be named as a finalist for the state’s top accolade.
As Maryland Teacher of the Year, Zepp will compete for National Teacher of the Year, to be announced in April 2015. She will spend the coming year traveling the state as a speaker and advisor. Zepp will be honored by the President at the White House next spring, and will participate in national meetings and conferences.
“Jody Zepp is an incredible representative of what makes our county and our schools among the best in the nation,” said HCPSS Superintendent Dr. Renee Foose. “I am honored to be among the first to congratulate Jody on this wonderful achievement.”
Zepp has been teaching at Hammond since 2009, where she is highly regarded for her work to increase rigor and expectations for social studies students. She is the lead advisor for several student extracurricular programs at the school, including the C-SPAN StudentCam competition, Stock Market Game, and Model UN. She also serves as coach of the Hammond HS EconChallenge Team, which has captured three consecutive state championships.
Zepp also spearheaded the creation of Hammond’s Government, Law, and Public Administration Academy, and is co-founder of the school’s Advanced Placement Bootcamp.
