Kelly Pearce is a 2022-2023 Teach Plus National Senior Writing Fellow. Kelly supports English Learners and Native American students and their teachers in elementary and secondary schools throughout Rio Rancho, New Mexico. She has taught preschool through high school in New Mexico and Thailand, as well as in Armenia during a two-year stint as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. Kelly served as a New Mexico Public Education Department Teacher Ambassador from 2019 to 2021, was Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History’s 2013 New Mexico History Teacher of the Year, and was named 2019 Teacher of the Year by DreamWakers, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization that brings virtual guest speakers into classrooms. She earned her BA in journalism from Arizona State University, her MA in elementary education from Western New Mexico University, her TESOL certification from the University of New Mexico, and her administrative license from New Mexico Highlands University. Kelly is an alumna of Teach Plus New Mexico Policy Fellowship, having previously served as Senior Fellow with that program, and a Teach Plus Senior Research Fellow. Her op-eds have been published in the Albuquerque Journal, Los Alamos Daily Post, and Santa Fe New Mexican, among others.
