LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Dr. Valencia Hall was nominated by Amanda Dutton, a family member.

Dr. Hall has more than 18 years of experience in education and has worked in many capacities in the public school system. She began her career as a Technology Teacher for the Engineering program at Forest Brook High School in North Forest ISD, her Alma Mater. She then transitioned to the Engineering Program Director for the Career Technology Department at North Forest High School in the same school district. In this role, Dr. Hall taught all four grade levels (9-12) and was responsible for inventory and ordering supplies, sponsoring the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Junior Chapter, and recruiting middle school students for the upcoming year. She loved this role so much that she prepared her students annually for local, regional, and national competitions as far as Toronto, Canada. The competitions created a first-time opportunity for her students to leave their neighborhood and experience places they would only read about in books. 

Unfortunately, her school district was consolidated in 2013. Therefore, Dr. Hall moved on to Houston ISD as a Career Technology Education chairperson and Engineering teacher at Energy Institute High School. While there, she learned a new teaching method called Project-Based Learning (PBL) and trained with multiple expert campuses ranging from Texas to California. Dr. Hall took her same energy and love for children to this campus. She created a partnership with Prairie View A&M University's Architecture Graduate Program with her freshmen-level students for a Net Zero Energy Container Home project they were making. This partnership was the start of many other great opportunities for her students to provide authentic presentation forums, such as a campus-based Shark Tank simulation project for her campus with awards from the local radio station. The judges ranged from lead supervisors with the Environmental Protection Agency to Professors at Texas A&M University. 

Although she loved teaching in the classroom, she was later promoted in 2017 to a District Recruiter as a Teacher Recruitment and Selection team member. In this role, she was a LifeChanger for students and those who wished to be educators. This role consisted of her visiting local universities and statewide job fairs to recruit educators for the school district. Dr. Hall was critical in recruiting Career and Technical educators (CTE) from her experience and helped lower the number of educators that campuses needed to hire. 

In 2018, she transitioned back to the high school level as an administrator, where she is currently the assistant principal at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston ISD. In this role, she is continuing her life-changing journey by being the Senior Class Sponsor, supporting students with Credit Recovery opportunities, increasing the campus graduation rate, and ensuring students in all grades have a chance to get an industry-based certification as well as leave high school as a college or career ready student. She even works with students on obtaining scholarships with the campus college advisors. 

Along with her experience as a public school teacher, she has nine years of experience as a Drafting Adjunct Professor for Houston Community College and three years of experience as an Instructional Technology Management Adjunct Professor for the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.

"Dr. Hall possesses leadership traits that exemplify one who naturally leads with an unknowing servant leadership role as she meets students' needs and collaborates among staff members each day," said her principal. "She helps to create a school environment that transitions into a laboratory for all stakeholders to learn, especially parents. It is evident that her passion is to develop young minds into critical thinkers that will one day be productive members of society."

"Dr. Hall's servant leadership abilities, work ethic, loving attitude, and proven communication abilities will make her an excellent candidate for this honor," said Dutton. "I could not think of anyone more deserving than this hard-working mother, wife, sister, past co-worker, and friend."