CONGRATULATIONS TO Katrina Mundy for winning NEA Foundation’s 2025 Travelers Award for Teaching Excellence. The Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association member is one of 48 educators from across the country who were recognized for their exemplary work in the classroom, advocacy for the profession, engagement with families and communities, and commitment to equity and diversity.

“Any honor given to me is always shared,” Mundy told the Educator. “I have not been alone in my work!”

Mundy, a senior English/Google Project Management teacher and Community Schools Teacher Lead at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, is a big proponent of student-led community engagement. Her classes have a civic engagement and problem-solving focus. An NEA Today story earlier this year described community improvement projects designed by her students, including a “pop-up library” built by woodshop students and stocked with donated books. The pop-up helps students and surrounding community who have limited library access. “Students organize and lead the project, and then reflect on their work and how it affects the community — all real-world skills that prepare them for a broad scope of experiences in their lives,” Mundy explained.

Mundy founded the nonprofit Magnolia SAFE (Sentinel Assistance Funding Essentials) during the COVID-19 pandemic to address food insecurity and other basic needs of Magnolia High School students and their immediate families. “Most of our donations are from our faculty and alumni and we have raised over $110,000 since March 2020,” Mundy said, adding that SAFE partners with the school social worker, teachers, counselors and family resource team.

The NEA Foundation’s Awards for Teaching Excellence were established in 2001. Five of the awardees are then selected to receive the Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence as well as $10,000 each. Finally, one of the awardees is selected for the NEA Member Benefits Award and receives $25,000. For more information, visit neafoundation.org.