WINONA, Minn. – The Winona Education Association named high school teacher Sarah Dixen and middle school teacher Lizz Hall as its 2024 teachers of the year. Their selection was announced in separate ceremonies at their schools.

Dixen. She teaches history and government. She has been at the high school since 2012. Previously she designed curriculum for the graduate program at UW-La Crosse, where she also taught. She has taught also in Blue Earth, Mankato and at St. Charles. In 2023 she was selected as a Genocide Education Project fellow and spent 10 days in Armenia. Last summer, she took part in a program at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Hall. She works with students whose primary language is not English. She has taught 22 years at the middle school and has served for five years as system coordinator in the district’s English as a Second Language program. Hall has served on several school committees and is active in the WEA teachers union. In 2014 she received the Diversity Advocacy Award from nonprofit Project FINE, which serves immigrant and refugee families.

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John Casper, spokesperson for Winona schools: “Sarah Dixen tries to help her students better understand the world around them. Lizz Hall tries to help the world better understand her students. They are talented, loving, creative and pour every once of themselves into their students, fostering a connection that doesn’t stop when the bell rings or the school year ends.”