nominee<\/a> representing a district or charter school received a $2,000 award from their respective district or charter school in recognition of their work with students.<\/p>\nThis year\u2019s 2026 Delaware Behavioral Health Professional of the Year winner is Taylor Richey, a school counselor with the Woodbridge School District.<\/p>\n
Richey received a total of $5,000 from the state and her district as this year\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n
The Woodbridge School District will also receive $5,000 to support the students Richey serves.<\/p>\n
She says it’s an honor to be recognized for her work at the\u00a0Woodbridge School District, as she graduated from the same district when she was a student.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Richey also had a message to her fellow nominees.<\/p>\n
“Your work is meaningful and it truly takes a village to support our students and families,” Richey says. “The connections that you make matter and the impact that you make on each child will last a lifetime.”<\/p>\n
Last year, social worker Jaclyn Durant from the Red Clay Consolidated School District was named Behavioral Health Professional of the Year.<\/p>\n
The 2026 District and Charter Behavioral Health Professionals of the Year are:<\/p>\n
\n- Appoquinimink School District: Debra Taylor, school counselor, Townsend Elementary School<\/li>\n
- Brandywine School District: Tina Lombardo, school counselor, Mount Pleasant Elementary School<\/li>\n
- Caesar Rodney School District: Nicole Boris, school counselor, Nellie Stokes Elementary School<\/li>\n
- Cape Henlopen School District: Terri Tipton, school social worker, Sussex Consortium<\/li>\n
- Capital School District: Heather Barcus, school nurse, Hartly Elementary School<\/li>\n
- Christina School District: Angelique \u201cAngel\u201d Boyce, school nurse, Sarah Pyle Academy<\/li>\n
- Colonial School District: Nicole Irwin, school social worker, John Leach School<\/li>\n
- Delaware Charter School Network: Dawnyel Furlong, school nurse, Sussex Academy<\/li>\n
- Indian River School District: Denise Parsons, school nurse, Selbyville Middle School<\/li>\n
- Lake Forest School District: Jennifer Satterfield, school counselor, Lake Forest Central Elementary School<\/li>\n
- Laurel School District: Logan Downes, school nurse, Laurel High School<\/li>\n
- Milford School District: Angel Mills, school counselor, Morris Early Childhood Center<\/li>\n
- New Castle County Vo-Tech School District: Kristan Garofalo, school counselor, Hodgson Vocational Technical High School<\/li>\n
- POLYTECH School District: Andrea Spence, school counselor, POLYTECH High School<\/li>\n
- Red Clay Consolidated School District: Kelly R. Nichol, school psychologist, Conrad Schools of Science<\/li>\n
- Seaford School District: Rhonda Bailey, school social worker, Blades Elementary School<\/li>\n
- Smyrna School District: Dina Pennington, school counselor, Sunnyside Elementary School<\/li>\n
- Sussex County Vocational Technical School District: Krista Schirmer, school counselor, Sussex Technical High School<\/li>\n
- Winner \u2014 Woodbridge School District: Taylor Richey, school counselor, Woodbridge Early Childhood Education Center<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>Get WDEL’s top stories sent right to your email.\u00a0\u00a0Click here<\/a> to signup for WDEL’s Afternoon Edition.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd get breaking news notifications sent right to your mobile device.<\/strong> Click here<\/a> to download the WDEL app \u2013 which gives you easy on-the-go access to WDEL’s stream.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supporters of student mental health were honored tonight for their work in Delaware schools. School counselors, social workers,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":690573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[36],"tags":[7663,2454,7931,407,210,1141,517,7673,1737,328433,9159,27517,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-807428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-behavioural-sciences","tag-cognition","tag-disability","tag-education","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-mental-health","tag-psychological-concepts","tag-psychology","tag-school-counseling","tag-social-issues","tag-social-policy","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116601229747933759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}