[Noozhawk’s note: One in a series on the teachers who will be honored Oct. 25 at A Salute to Teachers, presented by Cox Communications and the Santa Barbara County Education Office.]
Eight public school educators will be recognized Oct. 25 at the 12th annual Salute to Teachers, an event hosted by Cox Communications and the Santa Barbara County Education Office at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito.
Natalie Wilkes — a Monte Vista School first-grade teacher in the Hope Elementary School District in Santa Barbara — is the 2026 Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year.
Sara DiSalvo, a music teacher at Cold Spring School in the Cold Spring School District in Montecito, will be recognized as the 2026 Santa Barbara Bowl Performing Arts Teacher of the Year.
The 2026 distinguished mentors to be recognized are social studies and AVID teacher Nicole Caiazza at La Cumbre Junior High School in the Santa Barbara Unified School District, Clarence Ruth School teacher Wendy Culver in the Lompoc Unified School District, and instructional coach Amanda Wildhagen at Fairlawn Elementary School in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District.
The 2026 distinguished new educators to be honored are agriculture teacher Alondra Barrueta-Novoa at Santa Maria High School in the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District, agriculture/science teacher Emily Garcia at Carpinteria High School in the Carpinteria Unified School District, and bilingual education specialist Gloria Sevilla at Taylor Elementary School in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District.
In addition to Cox, Salute to Teachers is sponsored by Noozhawk, Driscoll’s, Fielding Graduate University, Melfred Borzall, Ramsey Asphalt Construction and the Santa Barbara Bowl.
Noozhawk Q&A
Noozhawk: What was the moment you knew, “I want to be a teacher?”
Emily Garcia: My senior year when I was a helping hand to my first-year teacher in the FFA program and realized the feeling of helping others have the “aha moment.”
Noozhawk: How long have you been teaching?
EG: Three years.
Noozhawk: What is your favorite subject or lesson plan to teach your students?
EG: My favorite course is my vet/animal science course.
Noozhawk: What’s your classroom superpower — and how did you develop it?
EG: Creating relationships with students and creating an environment in my class in which everyone feels comfortable to learn, speak up and be themselves.
Noozhawk: Share a student success story that stays with you (no names needed).
EG: My last semester of student teaching, there was one student who was always labeled as the “wild child.” For whatever reason he and I really bonded, and he decided he wanted to teach ag and “be just like me.”
He is now at Kansas State, where he is an ag ambassador, still in the major and is in contact with me at least weekly.
There are many stories like this, but to have a student give you all the credit for his successes means the world to me.
Noozhawk: What advice would you give your first-year teacher self?
EG: Even when you think things are not good enough, they are.
