Meet the Remarkable Runners-Up of the 2026 Educator Legacy Award
- Road Scholar’s Educator Legacy Award recognizes retiring educators whose careers have made a lasting impact on students, schools and communities.
- The five 2026 runners-up are Kathy Ho, Jeanne Knudsen, Anne Scatolini, Maureen “Moe” Daschel and Denise Porcello.
- Their work spans hospital education, social studies, arts and mindfulness, STEM education and special education.
- As they enter retirement, these educators continue to pursue their own interests and learning, reflecting the lifelong curiosity they encouraged in their students.
Every educator leaves a lasting impression, though it rarely looks the same from one classroom to the next. For some students, it's the confidence to pursue a dream they hadn't considered before. For others, it's a lifelong love of science, history or the arts. Sometimes, it's simply the knowledge that someone believed in them.
Those lasting connections are at the heart of Road Scholar's Educator Legacy Award, which honors retiring educators who have made an extraordinary impact on their students, schools and communities. While one educator receives the annual award, the stories behind this year's runners-up are equally inspiring. Together, they remind us that great teaching is measured not only by what students learn, but by the curiosity, confidence and compassion they carry with them long after graduation.
Meet the remarkable educators who earned runner-up honors in the 2026 Educator Legacy Award.
Kathy Ho
Bringing Learning to Students Who Needed It Most
For 28 years, Kathy Ho made sure medically fragile children didn't have to put their education or their curiosity on hold while receiving medical care. As a hospital schoolteacher, she worked tirelessly to create opportunities many of her students might otherwise have missed, organizing a hospital prom, bringing hands-on science activities to patients and finding creative ways to connect children with the natural world. Her advocacy also extended beyond the classroom through statewide leadership and legislation supporting medically fragile students.
Retirement hasn’t slowed Kathy’s passion for learning or helping others explore the world. Today, she continues creating hands-on educational experiences that spark curiosity and connect people with the natural world, continuing the work that defined so much of her career. It’s a fitting next chapter for an educator who believes learning belongs to everyone, regardless of circumstance.
Jeanne Knudsen
Inspiring the Next Generation of Engaged Citizens
History came alive in Jeanne Knudsen's classroom, but her greatest lesson may have been showing students how to become thoughtful, engaged members of their communities. During more than two decades at Longwood High School, she combined a deep knowledge of social studies with opportunities for students to participate in civic life through advocacy, leadership and public service. Along the way, she helped shape statewide civics initiatives and redefine what social studies education looks like for today's learners.
Her commitment to helping students understand not only the past, but their role in shaping the future, earned widespread recognition. More importantly, it reflects the kind of lasting influence the Educator Legacy Award was created to celebrate.
Anne Scatolini
Connecting Students With Opportunity
Throughout her career, Anne Scatolini believed students learn best when they can connect classroom lessons to the wider world. She built partnerships with theaters, artists and community organizations, introduced mindfulness programs to support student well-being and helped students tell their own stories through performances and creative projects. She also secured funding for school gardens, murals and college access initiatives that opened new possibilities for the young people she served.
Since retiring, Anne has continued embracing lifelong learning through Santa Monica College's Emeritus Program while exploring new creative pursuits of her own. Her next Road Scholar adventure will take her back to her hometown, where she plans to deepen her watercolor skills while painting the landscapes and wildlife that inspired her years ago.
Maureen "Moe" Daschel
Inspiring Confidence Through Science
For more than 40 years, students at St. Mary's Academy knew Maureen "Moe" Daschel as the teacher who made science both approachable and inspiring. She founded mentorship programs, developed hands-on research opportunities and led educational expeditions around the world, encouraging generations of young women to see themselves as scientists, researchers and leaders.
The measure of her impact is easy to find in the words of former students and colleagues, who describe a teacher who inspired confidence as readily as scientific curiosity. Many credit Moe with helping them recognize strengths they didn't know they possessed— a legacy that continues well beyond the classroom. As she begins retirement, she's looking forward to new adventures of her own, including a long-awaited trip to see polar bears in northern Canada.
Denise Porcello
Leading by Example as a Lifelong Learner
After 33 years as a special education teacher, Denise Porcello retired with the same curiosity that shaped her career. She devoted herself to helping students recognize their strengths and overcome obstacles, believing that success begins with confidence and compassion. Outside the classroom, she pursued a passion for paleontology, volunteered in her community and even contributed to scientific research, proving that learning never has to stop.
Today, Denise is looking forward to using her Road Scholar travel voucher to study geology at the Grand Canyon, adding another chapter to a lifetime defined by curiosity, generosity and a love of discovery.
A Legacy That Continues
Although these five educators taught different subjects, in different schools and in different corners of the country, they share something important in common. Each expanded what learning looked like for their students, whether by introducing them to science in the field, connecting them with the arts, encouraging civic engagement or simply helping them believe in themselves.
As these remarkable educators begin the next chapter of their own learning journeys, their influence lives on in the countless students they inspired to stay curious, ask questions and keep exploring. That's a legacy worth celebrating.