In 1986, I co-founded Aim High because I believed that underserved middle schoolers deserved access to the kind of enriching summer learning that changes a young person's trajectory. Over the next thirty-six years, I learned something I did not fully anticipate when we started: the teachers made all the difference.

That is what draws me to Above and Beyond Teaching. Even in retirement, I find I cannot step away from work that puts exceptional educators front and center. They gave everything to our students at Aim High, and teachers like them are giving everything in public schools across California right now.

Please make a gift with me today to make sure they know it matters.

Alec Lee, Board Member

Your gift affirms that exceptional public school educators matter. Recognition fuels purpose and keeps great teachers in the profession.

Supports collaborative learning, peer mentorship, and connection through the Teacher Leadership Academy. Teachers thrive when they grow together.

Expands support for teachers working in underserved urban and rural communities — ensuring more students have access to exceptional instruction.

Invests in long-term teacher recognition, leadership development, and retention. Your gift helps keep extraordinary educators in the profession.

As Executive Director of Above & Beyond Teaching, I have the privilege of working alongside extraordinary educators who show up every day for their students with creativity, courage, and care. Supporting teachers and making sure their work is recognized, valued, and sustained is at the heart of everything we do.

This fundraiser directly supports our annual awards ceremony and educator programming. These moments of recognition matter. They remind teachers that their work is seen, their leadership is valued, and they are part of a broader community that believes in public education.

Your contribution helps cover event costs, educator recognition, student participation, and accessibility, ensuring that our programs remain free and welcoming to teachers across California. Every gift, no matter the size, plays a role in celebrating excellence and strengthening the educator community.

Thank you for supporting the teachers who go above and beyond, and for standing with us as we continue this important work together.

Beverly Young, Executive Director

As Board Chair of Above & Beyond Teaching, I am deeply committed to ensuring that exceptional educators are recognized, supported, and connected to a strong community of peers. Teachers play a critical role in shaping our schools, our students, and our future, and they deserve to be seen and celebrated for the impact they make every day.

This fundraising effort supports our annual awards ceremony and educator programming, which honor outstanding public school teachers across California. These moments of recognition are powerful. They affirm educators’ work, elevate their leadership, and strengthen the networks that sustain them throughout their careers.

Your donation helps cover event production, educator recognition, student participation, and accessibility, allowing us to keep these programs free and inclusive. As Board Chair, I am proud to stand behind this work and grateful for your partnership in supporting educators who go above and beyond.

Thank you for investing in teachers and in the future of public education.

Kathy Williams, Board Chair

As a board member of Above & Beyond, I believe deeply in leadership and in investing in people who shape the future. Throughout my career as an investor, advisor, and board leader, I’ve seen how access to opportunity and thoughtful recognition create lasting impact.

Teachers are leaders every day. They guide students, strengthen communities, and lay the foundation for long-term success. This fundraising effort helps elevate exceptional educators through recognition and leadership programming that values excellence, connection, and innovation.

I’m proud to support this work and grateful to stand with others who believe that investing in educators is one of the most meaningful ways to invest in the future.

Lise Buyer, Board Member

I co-founded Broderbund Software in 1980 because I believed the right educational tools could open doors for students who might not otherwise have them. That conviction has carried through everything I have worked on since, from public media to civic institutions to philanthropic work across three continents. Teachers are at the center of all of it. Supporting the exceptional ones, especially those serving students in underserved communities, has always felt like the most meaningful work I can do. That is why the Carlston Award carries our family's name.

Please join me in making a gift today.

Doug Carlston, Board Member

For more than fifteen years, my work has centered on one question: how do we make sure students in underserved communities get what they need to thrive? I have pursued that answer in government, in the nonprofit sector, and now at Pivot Learning. What I know from all of it is that teachers are the variable that matters most, and that the most effective thing we can do is find the exceptional ones and support them fully.

Above and Beyond Teaching does exactly that. I hope you will make a gift and join me in this work.

Nadya Chinoy Dabby, Board Member

I spent thirty-one years in California public schools as a teacher, a principal, and a district administrator. I know what it looks like when an exceptional teacher walks into a room. I also know what it costs them to keep showing up, year after year, without the recognition or support they have earned.

That experience is what brought me to Above and Beyond Teaching, and it is what keeps me here. The educators this organization honors are the ones I spent my career trying to find and keep. Please make a gift and help us reach more of them.

Stan Hitomi, Board Member

I have spent my career helping brands connect people to causes and ideas they did not know they needed until they found them. At Apple, at Excite, and in my consulting work with nonprofits, the through line has always been the same: find what is genuinely worth supporting and tell that story honestly.

Above and Beyond Teaching is genuinely worth supporting. I joined the Development Committee because I believe that, and I am asking you directly to make a gift today. California's public school teachers are doing remarkable work in communities that too often go unrecognized, and this organization is one of the best ways I know to change that.

Lynda Lucero, Board Member

Building institutions that expand opportunity for young people has been the through line of my career, from founding Marin Promise Partnership to my work with the Marin Community Foundation and New Schools Venture Fund. Every time, I find myself returning to the same conclusion: lasting change in education starts with the people standing in front of students every day.

That is why Above and Beyond Teaching resonates with me so deeply. This organization works at the most important level there is. Please make a gift today and help ensure that California's most dedicated teachers are seen, supported, and celebrated.

Ann Mathieson, Board Member

I am a first-generation college student who started at a community college in San Diego. I know what it meant to have teachers who believed in me before I fully believed in myself, and I carried that into every classroom I ever stood in, as a tutor, an English teacher, an AVID coordinator, and a literacy coach.

When I received the Carlston Outstanding Teachers of America Award, it was one of the most meaningful moments of my career. To be recognized for work I loved, and sometimes doubted, by an organization that truly understands what teachers give, that stays with you.

Above and Beyond Teaching finds the educators who are doing this work every day, with dedication and brilliance, often in communities where recognition is rare. I know what that recognition means. Please make a gift and help us reach more of them.

Myrtice Salmond, Ed. D, Board Member

At the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, my work operates at a scale that can be hard to make personal. We award more than 300,000 credentials each year. We set the standards and oversight structures that shape how teachers enter and move through the profession across this entire state. That work matters, and I believe in it deeply.

But Above and Beyond Teaching works at a different level entirely, and one that is just as essential. The Carlston Award does not recognize a credential or a policy outcome. It recognizes a person, a teacher whose impact on students and communities cannot be captured in any licensure system I oversee.

That is why I am on this board, and why I am asking you to make a gift today.

Mary Vixie Sandy, Ed. D, Board Member

Board of Directors

Above & Beyond Teaching

Help recognize, connect, and sustain the educators who shape California’s future.

Most of us remember a teacher who changed our lives. Great teachers do more than deliver lessons. They build confidence, create belonging, and help young people see what is possible.

Yet many exceptional educators feel unseen and isolated. Across California, public high school teachers face growing demands and limited support. Too often, they leave the classroom not because they lack commitment, but because they lack sustained recognition and community.

Above & Beyond Teaching exists to change that reality.

Above & Beyond Teaching builds a visible, statewide community that honors exceptional public high school educators, connects them with dedicated peers, fosters leadership and collaboration, and ensures they feel valued, supported, and inspired to remain and grow in the profession.

When teachers feel valued and connected through Above & Beyond Teaching, they stay in the profession and continue to grow.

Ninety-five percent of educators in the Above & Beyond Teaching community remain in teaching.

Eighty-eight percent report meaningful professional and personal growth.

Eighty-four percent say the professional learning offered through Above & Beyond Teaching is more impactful than any they have experienced.

Ninety-five percent would recommend our programs to their colleagues.

These outcomes matter because students thrive when great teachers stay, and at the heart of Above & Beyond Teaching are our Honorees—master educators and leaders whose recognition not only celebrates individual excellence but strengthens a culture that values teaching as essential, skilled, and transformative work.

Your support makes this community possible.

Monthly donations to Above & Beyond Teaching provide steady, dependable support for educator recognition, leadership development, professional gatherings, and storytelling that amplifies teacher voices. Recurring gifts help sustain this statewide network year-round and ensure our programs remain accessible, inclusive, and rooted in equity.

One-time gifts also make an immediate and meaningful difference.

When you give to Above & Beyond Teaching, you invest in educators. You strengthen professional community. You affirm that exceptional teachers matter. And you help ensure that teachers who go above and beyond can continue shaping lives, schools, and futures across California.

Join the Above & Beyond Teaching community today.

Prefer to give by check? Make checks payable to Above & Beyond and mail to P.O. Box 10162, San Rafael, CA 94912. Stock donations, wire transfers, and other giving options are also available. Visit 

Follow along and see what exceptional teaching looks like.