2006 Gladys Prior Awards
for Career Teaching Excellence

2006  Gladys Prior Winners

Ms. Janet Coburn, Paxon School for Advanced Studies; Mr. Patrick Nolan, Sandalwood High School; Ms. Jacqueline Simms, Sandalwood High School; Mr. Gregory Whaley, Mandarin Middle School, received Gladys Prior Awards for Career Teaching Excellence which was announced during ceremonies at the schools on May 3rd and 4th.

This is the ninth year the awards have been presented, thanks to the generosity of Jacksonville native Mr. Gilchrist Berg, founder and president of Water Street Capital, an investment firm based in Jacksonville. Mr. Berg established the awards, which are administered by the College to honor the late Gladys Prior, one of his teachers at Ortega Elementary School. Mr. Berg said Prior saw his potential and encouraged him to succeed. The Dean’s Office would like to thank Dr. George Corrick for his wonderful job in helping get the awards established. This year Dr. Corrick retired from these responsibilities. Dr. Lynne Raiser has assumed the administrator role. Though Dr. Corrick’s shoes are hard to fill, Dr. Raiser is off to a wonderful start and everything went smoothly during this year of transition.

Ms. Coburn has taught for 40 years and teaches advanced placement European history at Paxon School for Advanced Studies.

For the first time, there were two winners from one school. Sandalwood High School winners were Mr. Patrick Nolan and Ms. Jacqueline Simms. Nolan, a U.S. history and law studies teacher, started his career teaching students with disabilities at Alden Road Exceptional Student Center and later at Sandalwood. He has been teaching for 20 years. Simms, has taught chemistry at Sandalwood for 30 years and she’s an alumnus of UNF.

Mr. Gregory Whaley teaches geography at Mandarin Middle School He has been teaching for 14 years.

The Gladys Prior Awards for Career Teaching Excellence are
 among the largest monetary awards for teachers in the nation.
Gilchrist Berg, founder and president of a Jacksonville investment company, established the awards in 1998 to honor
his 4^th grade teacher at Ortega Elementary School , Gladys Prior.
In addition, Mr. Berg honored his  6th grade teacher, Gladys Roddenberry,
by naming five UNF graduate scholarships after her. Mr. Berg has pledge over$2,000,000  to continue these awards  for
  Duval County public and private school teachers.