Chicago, IL (December 7, 2006)—Nancy Roberts Garrity, a seventh and eighth grade teacher at Chicago’s St. John Fisher Elementary School, was recently named one of twelve National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) Distinguished Teacher Award recipients for 2006.

"Nancy Roberts Garrity represents the highest level of creative effort exercised to provide a positive learning environment that helps promote the success of each student,” notes Nicholas Wolsonovich, Ph.D., the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Superintendent of Schools. “She’s a terrific role model who gives and receives the respect of her students, parents and colleagues.”

Chosen from a pool of more than 100,000 teachers, Garrity will receive special recognition by the Office of Catholic Schools during its Heart of the Schools Awards ceremony on January 26, 2007. She will also be honored at a special banquet on the opening evening of the annual NCEA Convention in Baltimore on April 10, 2007.

Award recipients come from the twelve geographic regions that comprise the NCEA Department of Elementary Schools. “Each of these outstanding teachers embody the very best of Catholic education. Their commitment to academic excellence and dedication to young people are the reasons parents choose Catholic schools,” said Brother Robert Bimonte, NCEA Department of Elementary Schools Executive Director.

Garrity describes her educational philosophy as one of helping students realize their full potential in both mind and spirit. Sr. Jean McGrath, principal at St. John Fisher, sees her as a “Renaissance woman whose interests span a wide and rich variety of artistic and creative endeavors that touch every facet of her teaching.”

Garrity has published two books, Classic Middle School Literature: MYSTERY and Classic Middle School Literature: ADVENTURE, as well as a set of teaching posters titled, Elements of Fiction. She graduated from Northern Illinois University with a B.S. in Education in 1970, and before arriving at St. John Fisher in 1990, taught at Orland Park’s St. Michael School.