Sugar Hill Instructor Named Gwinnett Teacher Of The Year

SUWANEE, GA — A Sugar Hill elementary-school instructor has been awarded Gwinnett County Teacher of the Year honors.

Katie Blum, a second-grade teacher at Sugar Hill Elementary School, was named Gwinnett’s top teacher at a ceremony Thursday night at the district’s headquarters in Suwanee. Blum was also named Elementary School Teacher of the Year.

“It is completely shocking and overwhelming and surprising to be Gwinnett County’s Teacher of the Year,” Blum said to The Gwinnett Daily Post. “I never expected this.”

Blum earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and elementary education, as well as her master’s degree in teacher education, from the University of Tennessee. She holds a specialist’s degree in teacher leadership from Georgia College and State University. Blum has also taught at Riverside Elementary School in Suwanee.

Kelly Donovan, another finalist and a sixth-grade teacher at Coleman Middle School in Duluth, was named Middle School Teacher of the Year. Philip Peavy of Paul Duke STEM High School in Norcross was named High School Teacher of the Year.

The remaining finalists were Lena Alonso of Lilburn Elementary School, Julianne Purnell of Five Forks Middle School in Lawrenceville, and Danielle Swaby of South Gwinnett High School in Snellville.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony was limited to the finalists and their families, as well as four of five Board of Education members and some district staff.

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