LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Kristen Meeker was nominated by an anonymous family member.          

Mrs. Meeker has been an educator and military spouse for 25 years. From 1996 to 2022, she has made significant and lasting contributions to the education and welfare of students at schools in Germany, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Her passion for student well-being & success is evident in everything she does, and it began with her very first job out of college.

"In 1996, Kristen began her work as a Department of Defense (DoD) Schools math teacher at Wurzburg Middle School in Germany," said her family member. "She taught Math 7, Math 8, and Music, while volunteering to take classes on the new 'Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID)' program. AVID focused on students who had college potential but were at risk due to lax study habits, home issues, social challenges, or even language barriers."

This training would prove pivotal in her next job at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Mrs. Meeker also volunteered to coach Wurzburg's Mathcounts team, which competed with other DoD schools in the United States and worldwide. Her coaching led the team to the state level in their first year, where they placed third overall.

In 2002, Mrs. Meeker transitioned to a Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) math teacher position at Fort Bragg's Albritton Middle School. During this time, she took a personal interest in the unique challenges facing military students when soldiers deployed in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, leaving many homes to be managed by a single parent overnight.

"Despite her teaching workload, she volunteered for a position as an Army Family Action Plan (AFAP) coordinator, helping families with deploying soldiers establish educational and emotional paths to success for their children," explains her family member.

Mrs. Meeker also brought her AVID skills to Albritton Middle School, where she garnered the principal's approval to establish an AVID program from scratch. A year later, AVID was up and running, and her hard work earned Albritton an "AVID Certification with Distinction" six months after that. Under her direction, the program went on to help Albritton students build superior study skills and establish their college aspirations early in their academic careers. The AVID program complemented Mrs. Meeker's work as the Renaissance Program Co-chair, where she could recognize those students for their new-found academic success. Finally, she used her math skills as part of the School Improvement Committee, building quantifiable statistical models to improve test scores, attendance, and disciplinary referrals.

After building a great learning environment for students at Albritton, Mrs. Meeker paused to earn her Master's degree in counseling. However, this didn't keep her from volunteering for the Red Cross in 2009 during her husband's deployment. She earned her degree in 2010 (Summa Cum Laude), and in 2011, she put these skills to work in support of students and families at Camp Zama Japan, where she returned to DoD as a middle school counselor. Here, she pioneered the use of Student-Led Conferences (SLCs), which put students in charge of their own learning in a holistic sense. The students made action plans, set improvement goals, and explained their efforts quarterly to key stakeholders (parents and teachers). Her program was so successful that it was adopted across Zama Middle School, and parent attendance shot up 250% versus the more traditional parent-teacher conference methodology.

Mrs. Meeker further broadened her ability to support the military community by volunteering for Red Cross classes on improving mental health for students, families, and Soldiers. Towards the end of her time at Zama Middle School, the sudden departure of an employee meant that Mrs. Meeker found herself working as the acting assistant principal. However, it was only for a few months before she departed Japan to move to South Korea in support of her husband's military career.

In 2015, she accepted a position at the DoDEA Seoul American Elementary School. She provided counseling support to children of Army/Navy/Air Force personnel and South Korean children attending SAES. Though this was her first time working with elementary students, she used her past skills to improve the school's Sure Start program, develop a data-driven counseling program, and implement a school-wide incentive program. Mrs. Meeker's most significant success came from creating a new "Parent University Program" where parents and teachers collaborated to design curricula aligned with student needs as determined by data analysis.

Mrs. Meeker exited DoDEA's school system in 2017, accepting a position as an International School Counselor at Bonn International School (BIS), Germany, where she provided counseling to students from over 70 countries, as well as a small population of U.S. Embassy and U.S. Army dependent children. Never content with the status quo, she successfully advocated for an increase in secondary school counseling support (upping the counseling staff by two) and established a Student support team to address students struggling with cultural and language challenges. She pioneered Student-Led Conferences at Bonn as she had in Japan, and she assisted the BIS leadership team in implementing SLCs across all grades. 

When COVID took hold, she built a Distance Learning Initiative to support students learning from home. She supported their well-being through individual/group counseling, staff/parent consults, and referrals for additional support. Her volunteer efforts didn't slow either: from 2017 to her departure from Bonn in 2020, she was part of the Secondary Leadership Team, Whole School Support Team, Subject Leaders Committee, Child Protection Committee, and Crisis Management Team. She also served as a Running Club Coach, Ski and Field Trip Counselor, and sponsor for the BIS Ambassador Program. Furthermore, she maintained her Red Cross volunteer credentials, using them to provide counseling services to students and families of U.S. Soldiers at multiple locations across Germany.

In 2020, she was hired at Benjamin Davis Elementary Magnet School in Decatur, Alabama. After working there for nearly two years, she transitioned to Tanner High School, just west of Huntsville, Alabama. At Tanner, Mrs. Meeker found a team of education professionals that shared her love of student success in the face of overwhelming odds; many of the students at Tanner came from disadvantaged or broken homes, and at this Tier 1 school, she found her calling. She continues at Tanner High School today, motivated by her passion for helping students succeed. To put it in her own words:

"I am an educator because I want to inspire others to achieve. I believe that students can accomplish anything through determination and motivation, but the skills educators provide help those students overcome the challenges while learning how to approach challenging life problems as well. This is what I find truly rewarding, especially when I see a student succeed at a planned, determined effort to achieve a goal."