Aubrey Flowers, principal of Council Oak Elementary School in Tulsa who is working toward earning her doctorate at OU-Tulsa, said it was a complete surprise when she was honored with a $25,000 Milken Educator Award at a schoolwide assembly in April – and the pictures prove it.
If you look at Flowers’ career and commitment to education, however, both for students and herself, it might come as less of a surprise.
Flowers is a 2017 graduate of the Master of Education in Administration program in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at OU-Tulsa and a current doctoral student in education administration. She started her graduate work to continue her passion for lifelong learning after seven years as a teacher.
The Milken Educator Award, established in 1987, celebrates this desire to strive for the best by elevating the American teaching profession. It is not a lifetime achievement award; rather, it honors educators in early to mid-career for what they will accomplish.
The Milken Family Foundation does not take nominations for the award – it seeks out educators and specialists and surprises them with this honor on their home campuses with a special ceremony among their school colleagues and students. That’s exactly what happened to Flowers – at a ceremony where even Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister was on hand.
