VATFACS Recognizes Outstanding Members

VATFACS recognizes its members outstanding contributions with the following awards: Outstanding New Teacher, Outstanding Teacher in Community Service, and Distinguished Service.

The Outstanding New Teacher Award is to encourage new teachers to remain in the profession. Recipients of this award must have made significant contributions toward innovative, unique and novel programs and have shown a professional commitment early in their careers. The winner of this award is eligible to compete at the regional level. 

While Ms. Rachel VanPelt has only taught for four years, she has made significant contributions to her school, community, and the field of family and consumer sciences.  Ms. VanPelt serves as the secretary on the VATFACS board of directors; former president of the Virginia FCCLA Alumni and Associates; current member of the Virginia FCCLA Board of Directors; president of the Fairfax County Family and Consumer Sciences Educators Association; chair of the Fairfax County Public Schools FCCLA District Competition; and she recently completed her Master’s degree from Virginia Tech.  Ms. VanPelt stated, “I’m sure that regardless of how many years I teach, I’ll always be able to learn new ideas through collaboration with my peers at these professional gatherings.” 

The Outstanding Teacher in Community Service Award recognizes teachers with significant accomplishments and outstanding leadership in programs and activities that promotes community involvement. Recipients of this award must have made significant contributions toward training, motivating, and inspiring their peers and students to become involved in programs and projects that benefit their communities.

Ms. Leslie Nussman, Family and Consumer Sciences teacher and FCCLA Advisor at Dinwiddie High School, works hard to incorporate service learning through her FACS program. She has utilized FCCLA as a catalyst for organizing and coordinating various service projects, including feeding the homeless, collecting items for a children’s orphanage, assisting victims of domestic violence to name a few. Her school administrators writes, “I have on numerous occasions seen Leslie go out of her way to assist students and to foster caring supportive relationships with those that she encounters.”

The Distinguished Service Award is present to a teacher, either present or past, who has made significant contributions to the improvement, promotion, development, and progress of family and consumer sciences education on the local, state, and national levels during his or her career. 

Debbie Will started contributing to our profession as a high school student, by serving as a state FCCLA officer.  She excelled as a middle school FACS teacher and FCCLA advisor before working in her current position on the FCCLA state staff as Co-Specialist.  For the past fourteen years has coordinated Virginia’s STAR Events and the Leadership Foundation.  Under Debbie’s leadership STAR Events participation in Virginia has skyrocketed, providing more and more FACS students with the valuable learning experiences FCCLA competition has to offer. Her nominator, Ms. Connie Rhoton, says, “I cannot imagine anyone else with the necessary skill set to manage our competitions with over 800 entries 150 volunteer workers. Debbie Will is truly “the Queen of STAR Events.”  In her role as Executive Director of the Virginia FCCLA Leadership Foundation, Ms. Will works to increase revenue and provide funding various leadership opportunities including, scholarships for state officers to attend the National Meeting, payment of STAR Events entry fees for Virginia members competing on the national level, scholarships to advisors for professional development, and grants for chapters to implement FACS related projects in their schools and communities.  Because of the Foundation and Ms. Will’s hard work FACS teachers and students across the commonwealth benefit from leadership opportunities that are higher quality and more affordable.