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Six educators who inspire honored as Orange County’s teachers of the year

April 30, 2026

Ryan Healy, a theater teacher at Marco Forster Middle School, was leading his students through a rehearsal for the Disney musical “Newsies Jr.” when the spotlight turned to him.

Orange County Superintendent Dr. Stefan Bean led a prize patrol into the Capistrano Unified school’s multipurpose room Wednesday morning, April 29, to make a surprise announcement: Healy is one of six educators chosen as the county’s teachers of the year, a recognition that comes with a $25,000 check and an invitation to a gala dinner at the Disneyland Hotel.

Marco Forster Middle School students react to the announcement that their drama teacher, Ryan Healy, is an Orange County Teacher of the Year. Officials made a surprise visit to the San Juan Capistrano school on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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As Bean presented Healy with a trophy of a bright red apple, Healy’s students erupted in cheers and applause on stage. Shortly after, they broke into song, resuming rehearsal of a number from the school production slated to open that evening.

“I wake up every single day trying to make kids feel a little bit taller when they go home,” Healy said, adding that the recognition was an “incredible” honor.

The coveted annual award is sponsored by the SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union and the Orange County Teachers of the Year Award Foundation. A judging panel of previous winners and education leaders reviewed applications from 65 nominees from districts and community colleges around the county, conducting interviews with 15 semifinalists and ultimately whittling down the list to six, district officials said.

Healy has been teaching for nearly a decade at Marco Forster, his alma mater, and leads the musical theater program in which he said about 20% of the student population is involved. In addition, he also runs the Peer Assistance Leadership program, teaches stagecraft and yearbook and provides English language development to 243 English learner students.

The five chosen K-12 educators will compete for the California Teachers of the Year award in the fall.

Bean emphasized the significance of being selected for the award in a county with more than 22,000 educators.

“We can all as adults think of one teacher who inspired us and changed the trajectory of our lives,” he said. “Today is about celebrating those teachers.”

Megan Avalos, Rossmoor Elementary School, Los Alamitos Unified School District

Avalos has taught elementary school in the district for 14 years, but to walk into her fifth-grade classroom is to be transported to Hogwarts.

The walls are covered in iconography of the “Harry Potter” series, with banners of the four houses, a “Muggle Studies” sign and a broomstick hanging near the ceiling. The decor is both fun and engages themes from the books.

Rossmoor Elementary fifth-grade teacher, Megan Avalos, celebrates with her class after she was named Orange County Teacher of the Year on Monday, April 27, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Also posted on the walls are important moral dilemmas for her young students to ponder, such as: “Is the desire for progress worth the consequences?”

Bean and his team surprised Avalos two days early because she was taking her class on a science field trip the rest of the week.

“Looks like I’m treating all my kiddos to Yogurtland,” Avalos joked as Bean presented her with the replica $25,000 check.

Bean’s daughter, Gabriella, is a former student of Avalos and was there to celebrate her teacher’s achievement. “There’s never a dull moment in her class,” said the now 15-year-old.

Los Alamitos Unified Superintendent Andrew Pulver said Avalos represents the “very best” of the district, who “makes learning come alive” by leading initiatives such as Rossmoor Elementary’s Houses program, which gathers students into groups to participate in friendly competitions and community service projects.

“You build in each and every student belief in themselves,” Pulver told Avalos after she received her award. “Because they have such a caring adult who believes in them, they know there’s nothing they can’t achieve.”

Kathryn Cerasuolo, Hope School, Anaheim Union High School District

Cerasuolo, affectionately known to her students as “Coach K,” has taught adapted physical education at Hope School for the past nine years — a dream job that “never feels like work,” she said.

Teaching PE to students with special needs, Cerasuolo said, requires both tenacity and resourcefulness. She describes herself as a “big puzzler,” often tracking down or building sporting equipment that is more accessible to her students, such as basketball hoops with adjustable heights or a Bluetooth-operated Stomp Rocket.

Kathryn Cerasuolo, an adaptive PE teacher at Hope School in Anaheim, helps student Alexis Rodriguez after she was named an Orange County Teacher of the Year on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Before a baseball game, Cerasuolo will take out a rolling speaker and let her athletes select a walk-up song to build up their confidence.

“I never want my students to feel like they can’t or won’t be able to do something because of a limitation or disability,” she said.

Cerasuolo said she was inspired to teach adaptive PE after watching her cousin, who has a disability and struggled in school, shine while playing sports.

“I think sports is something that binds us all together, whether we’re rooting for a favorite team or outside walking with family,” she said. “It’s something that connects us as people, and I just want to make sure that’s accessible to everybody.”

Katherine Green, Golden West College, Coast Community College District

Green has been teaching chemistry at Golden West College for 19 years, and practice-based learning is one of her guiding philosophies.

She structures her lessons around a “10-10” format, she said, a 10-minute lecture followed by 10 minutes of “collaborative problem-solving.”

Golden West College chemistry professor, Kate Green, center, is photographed with her husband, Scott, and son Spencer after she was named an Orange County Teacher of the Year in Huntington Beach on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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This more proactive approach, she said, allows her to better respond to her students’ progress and assess where they’re falling behind.

“If I taught you an equation, you need to practice right away,” she said, noting that students would, more often than not, forget the first 10 minutes of a one-hour lecture.

Among the group of colleagues, friends and family who appeared Wednesday to surprise Green was her son, an MIT student who flew in from Massachusetts.

Spencer Green, 22, described his mother as his “first and best” teacher.

During the pandemic, he recalled, she brought him and his sister to the lab and recorded them conducting experiments, many of which failed. She later showed those videos to her students, he said, to assure them that it’s OK to make mistakes.

As a professor of a notoriously difficult subject, Green said a teaching approach centered on encouragement and attentiveness has been the key to helping her students succeed.

Learning chemistry, she said, is much like playing a sport or a musical instrument: Progress comes with trial and error, patience and practice.

“At one point you can’t walk,” Green said she likes to remind her students, “now you can.”

Wendy Saldivar, Loara Elementary School, Anaheim Elementary School District

Saldivar said she found her calling in education after a stint working as a 911 operator.

“My love language is acts of service, both giving and receiving,” she said. “Being there behind the screens, hearing these calls, made me realize that I need to help people early on in life.”

Wendy Saldivar, a dual language immersion teacher at Loara Elementary School in Anaheim, reacts to a surprise visit by district officials who named her an Orange County Teacher of the Year on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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After getting the “epiphany” that she could do that by going into teaching, Saldivar got her credentials and never looked back, she said.

Saldivar has been an educator for a dozen years, the last decade teaching dual language immersion with Spanish at Loara Elementary.

In a baseball-themed classroom, her fifth graders are encouraged to learn in ways that make them comfortable, even if that means scribbling math equations with markers on their desks.

The lessons are engaging and practical: Saldivar said she’s hosted auctions on the digital platform ClassBank to teach her students about the value of money.

Saldivar said she shares her Teacher of the Year honor with her students, who follow and chant a pair of mottos that are plastered on her classroom walls: “Si Se Puede” and “Go for the Gold.”

“I told them: ‘Guys, we just hit the gold!” she said. “This is amazing.”

Brittany Walters, Dr. Peter Marshall Elementary, Magnolia School District

Walters has been teaching kindergarteners for 17 years. At Marshall Elementary, where she’s taught since 2011, she’s developed instruction plans that promote hands-on learning and prioritize the emotional needs of her young students.

For the past 14 years, Walters has also served as a mentor in the GRIP, or Gang Reduction Intervention Partnership, with local law enforcement, assuming the role a “secondary parent” to children most at risk of dropping out of school, she said.

Kindergarten teacher Brittany Walters celebratesÂ with her daughter, Paisley, after being...

Kindergarten teacher Brittany Walters celebrates with her daughter, Paisley, after being named a Teacher of the Year in Anaheim on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. One of six winners in the county, she teaches at Dr. Peter Marshall Elementary School in Anaheim. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Walters, like several of the winners, said she’s “ecstatic” to be recognized as a teacher of the year and plans to invest the $25,000 cash prize into her daughters’ college funds.

“It feels so nice to be acknowledged for the hard work we do in the classroom every single day,” Walters said. “Every single person on this campus deserves this award.”

After receiving her trophy and check from Bean, Walters gathered her students around for a group photo. Wide smiles broke out on many faces. Several children wrapped their arms around her.

Walters said she’s always thinking about her students, even after school ends, and considers them her children.

“My brain never turns off from them,” she said.

Six educators who inspire honored as Orange County’s teachers of the year Orange County Register

News Details

Six educators who inspire honored as Orange County’s teachers of the year

Megan Avalos, Rossmoor Elementary School, Los Alamitos Unified School District

Kathryn Cerasuolo, Hope School, Anaheim Union High School District

Katherine Green, Golden West College, Coast Community College District

Wendy Saldivar, Loara Elementary School, Anaheim Elementary School District

Brittany Walters, Dr. Peter Marshall Elementary, Magnolia School District

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