Title: Kindergarten Teacher
Company: Community Unit School District 201
Location: Indian Head Park, Illinois, United States
Mary Katharine Powell, MEd, Kindergarten Teacher at Community Unit School District 201, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in early childhood education.
With years of experience to her credit, Ms. Powell currently excels as a kindergarten teacher at Community Unit School District 201 in Westmont, Illinois. In this position, she works alongside four colleagues to establish an inclusive environment for their students, including piloting a small-group guided reading class program that combines the Orton-Gillingham and Jan Richardson systems to improve literacy. Driven by her own learning struggles in her youth, Ms. Powell is incredibly proud to have developed this fluid and flexible system alongside Laura Hatteberg by utilizing past data and focusing on the children in most need of immediate intervention.
Since 2018, Ms. Powell has been additionally active as a kindergarten teacher with the Archdiocese of Chicago. Prior to this role, she worked for the Archdiocese of Chicago as a preschool and prekindergarten aide in Westchester, Illinois in 2018. Ms. Powell began her career at Dominican University, refining her practical expertise as she served as a peer advisor from 2014 to 2017, an office assistant from 2015 to 2017, and a senior peer advisor from 2016 to 2017.
To support her professional ambitions, Ms. Powell initially pursued an education at Universidad de Salamanca in Spain, where she completed undergraduate coursework in Spanish language and culture in 2016. She continued her academic efforts with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and Spanish with minors in English language learning and English as a second language at Dominican University in 2017. She furthered her formal studies at Concordia University Chicago, graduating with a master’s degree in reading in 2023. In addition to these accomplishments, Ms. Powell obtained her certification as a reading specialist to further supplement her skill set.
Beyond her primary responsibilities, Ms. Powell has participated in numerous endeavors outside of her immediate circles. Since 2014, she has been affiliated with the Dominican University Honors Program and the Education Society. She is also a member of the National Education Association and LEDA. As a testament to her exceptional accomplishments, Ms. Powell was featured in Teacher Week and presented with the 2016 Empowered Teacher Award.
Ms. Powell has attributed her success to the encouragement and support she received from her parents and her fiance, who allowed her to pursue her passion. She is also grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Laura Hatteberg, a 30-year veteran in the field of education who has influenced her greatly in strengthening her goals over the years. Ms. Powell gains much satisfaction from her advocacy work as well, as she remains devoted to bettering her students and remaining open to change in her classroom.
A hard-worker who has harbored a lifelong admiration for early educators, Ms. Powell is also renowned for her empathy, having been able to relate to students in a similar situation as she had been in her youth. She was drawn to her current position after years in the private sector, as she realized the public school system provided more chances to reach children in need than Catholic school systems. In the coming years, she hopes to return to her education to garner a second master’s degree and a specialization in trauma-informed teaching for students who were affected by sudden changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Ms. Howell aims to increase her school district’s involvement in the science of reading and effective reading instructions that address the myriad needs of all children.
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