Gail Seay Honored with Outstanding Service Award
at the
2019 NESA SPRING EDUCATORS CONFERENCE in BANGKOK
Gail (center) accepting her award from NESA Executive Director Maddy Hewitt and David Chojnacki, former NESA Executive Director.
Gail Seay is the Director of Learning at the American School of Doha (ASD), Qatar, and the Chair of NESA's Professional Development Advisory Committee (PDAC). As she completes her work at ASD and PDAC, Gail was honored for her three decades of contributions to the NESA organization and region at the recent Spring Educators Conference in Bangkok. Below is the citation read at Saturday morning's plenary on March 30:
Gail Seay has served as chair of NESA's Professional Development Advisory Committee for fourteen years, and as we celebrate 50 golden years of NESA, we also celebrate the many years of devoted participation and leadership that Gail has given.
Gail has worked as an educator in the NESA region for over 30 years. She and her husband Mark taught in Riyadh, Jubail, Karachi, Islamabad and Dhaka, as well as the United States and in her own country, Australia. Their children were born and educated in NESA schools.
For many years, Gail has served as Director of Learning at the American School of Doha in Qatar. In 2004, at the inception of the NESA Professional Development Advisory Committee (PDAC), Gail joined as Committee Chair and has served in this role with distinction ever since.
NESA Exec. Director Maddy Hewitt honors Gail Seay with former NESA Exec. Director David Chojnacki. The "This is Life" tableau is on the screen.
When considering Gail’s leadership, words that come to mind include: professional, steady, nurturing, intelligent, strategic.
Her influence has had an indelible influence on the organization. Perhaps, more poignantly, with Gail’s wisdom, caring and mentoring, she has touched the lives of hundreds of educators in our region, and through them she has impacted the learning and well-being of — literally — thousands of NESA school students.
NESA has long championed “COLLABORATION” as the cornerstone of our success, and Gail’s life work has been devoted to collaboration.
Through the years she has been at the center of collaborative strategic work, from the beginning of the standards movement, serving to collaborate on the AERO standards project, then applying the standards through curriculum mapping with Jay McTighe and Heidi Hayes Jacobs, and on to developing assessments, grading and reporting with Tom Guskey, Ken O'Connor and others.
Gail has touched the lives of hundreds of educators in our region, and through them she has impacted the learning and well-being of thousands of NESA school students.
Gail brokered a powerful intersection between theorists and practitioners, as she brought the work to fully-fledged realization in her school setting. This impactful modeling went on to support the journey of countless others around the region. Gail continues this work as lead instructor in AERO's academic leadership program.
With steadfast professional generosity Gail has devoted herself to building learning cultures that are Inclusive as well as whole-hearted. Her capacity to do so has allowed her to make an enormous impact as a shining example of a Learning Leader.
In NESA’s own recent journey with new leadership coming on board, and many shifts taking place in the Professional Learning Landscape, we took the opportunity to engage in reflection on the question, “What keeps us going?” and, “How do we get to our 'Land of New Beginnings?’".
A graphic artist captured both words and images on a wonderful tableau (above). Words include:
"OUR VALUES/OUR MISSION”
“Everyone lifts one another up”
“Responsiveness”
“Vision”
“Faith and Commitment”
The scene in the center of the tableau includes a ship, sailing (steadily, intelligently, strategically) forward with a flag of HOPE on its mast.
Gail, you have been on NESA'S ship through all kinds of weather, mastering tools and tactics, steadily guiding our course and seeing us through. . .each time towards the beautiful land of new beginnings.
You have held up our values. You have championed our mission. You have modeled responsiveness and the collaborative spirit of NESA with Vision, Faith and Commitment.
It is an honor to celebrate you and to offer this award to you for Outstanding Contribution. We hope the ship depicted inside this silver bowl will always remind you of our journey, our gratitude and the hope that you’ve inspired at NESA.
Showcase Your School in NESA NEWS!
- Highlight your school's faculty and students, programs and initiatives.
- Share promising practices and strategies with NESA colleagues.
- Network, give and receive collegial encouragement.
NESA schools are invited to contribute articles, announcements, news items and events.
Email submissions to: laura@nesacenter.org.