Kathy Trujillo King, an instructor in Santa Barbara City College’s Early Childhood Education Department (ECE), is this year’s recipient of the Educator of the Year Award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties.
ADL’s local region established the Educator of the Year Award to recognize the work of outstanding educators or programs that further ADL’s mission to “stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure just and fair treatment to all.”
“This year’s award committee was inspired by Kathy’s longtime commitment to providing her students with anti-bias workshops to prepare them for their future work as pre-school teachers,” said Dan Meisel, regional director of ADL Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties.
“Kathy has a unique talent for creating a classroom environment in which her students feel comfortable speaking openly and honestly with each other,” said Pam Cysner, a senior advisor for student groups at UCLA. Cysner also serves as a facilitator for ADL’s A World of Difference education programs and works each year with Trujillo King and her class.
Trujillo King was born and raised in Santa Barbara. She attended Santa Barbara City College and considers herself “a true product of the ECEducation program.” She has worked in a variety of positions at Orfalea Early Learning Center, the lab school for the ECE department. She started as an intern and now supervises students completing their practicum while also teaching for the department.
Trujillo King holds a master’s degree in human development with an emphasis in College Teaching and Working with Adults from Pacific Oaks College.
The award will be presented during the ADL Tri-Counties 20th Anniversary Celebration and Concert Against Hate Reception on Sunday, Dec. 12, at a private home in Montecito. The award is accompanied by a grant from ADL’s Ruth and Herman Hausman Educational Endowment Fund.
Past recipients of ADL’s Educator of the Year Award include: Santa Barbara Unified’s PEAC Program, former Dos Pueblos High School Principal (now Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education) Shawn Carey (now assistant superintendent of secondary education); Canalino Elementary School Principal Jamie Persoon; former El Camino Elementary Principal Liz Barnitz (now Hope Elementary School principal); and longtime local reading specialist Tina McEnroe, co-founder of the Tina Hansen McEnroe and Paul V. McEnroe Reading & Language Arts Clinic at UCSB.
The current president of SBCC’s Board of Trustees, Peter Haslund, received the award in 2003.
ADL’s Dec. 12 event will include live musical performances by Santa Barbarans Lois Mahalia and Tina Schlieske.
ADL is a leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry, its mission is to protect the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to vigorously fight all forms of hate. ADL is the first call when acts of antisemitism occur. ADL’s Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties Office was established in 2001.
A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education, and fighting hate online, ADL’s goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate. More at www.adl.org.