This award recognizes outstanding service by an organization or an individual who makes a significant contribution to advancing the work of the Association for Middle Level Education in reaching middle grades educators, schools, and young adolescents.
2022 Recipient: Gail Heinemeyer
Beginning as a social studies and math teacher, Gail spent 45 years with the Ridley School District in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, ultimately serving as an assistant principal, principal, and Director of Support Services. While initially she envisioned teaching in the high school setting, she found herself at home in the middle grades after playing an integral role in the district’s transition to the middle school model. Since then, she’s become a lifelong advocate for middle level education and young adolescent students. Gail has been involved in AMLE in a leadership capacity for more than twenty years, notably serving as the Co-Chair of the 2005 AMLE Annual Conference in Philadelphia and as faculty for the Institute for Middle Level Leadership beginning in 2004. She served as Chair of the Institute from 2018 to 2021. Gail also chaired the Back-to-School Camp, AMLE’s first fully virtual conference, in the summer of 2020 to aid schools grappling with the pandemic. She is simultaneously heavily involved in her state affiliate, the Pennsylvania Association for Middle Level Education, which bestowed on her the William Alexander Award for contributions to middle level education.
Learn more about Gail’s impact:
Past Recipients:
2021 – Linda Hopping
2016 – Pat George
2014 – Norma Bailey
2011 – Ann Eichel
2006 – Imogene & Henry Forte
2006 – Bruce Bailey
2005 – Katie Sullivan
2000 – U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley
1998 – Court TV
1986 – John Swaim