Reich College of Education

Kimberly Jones is the 2023 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year.

She has been a high school English teacher in Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools since 2006.

Kimberly earned her bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in education with a focus in secondary English from Wake Forest University.

She has spent the majority of her career teaching World Literature courses and has a special dedication to Holocaust and Human Rights education. She serves as a North Carolina Site Director for TOLI (The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights) and also works as an education consultant with PBS. These positions allow her to lead and support fellow educators throughout the state and country in building lessons that help students better understand literary, cultural, and historical texts and events, establish their relevance to diverse 21st-century learners, and empower students to use their learning to build positive, productive, and empowered futures for themselves and their communities.

Kimberly has won numerous awards in her teaching career including the North Carolina Attorney General’s Dogwood Award, the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools Equity Equals Excellence Award, the Chapel Hill Public School Foundation Sullivan Chair for Excellence in High School English Education, and the WCHL Chapelboro Hometown Hero Award to name a few.

Kimberly has been married to her husband, Joshua, since 2019 and is the proud stepmom of two sons. She enjoys serving her community in a number of equity and advocacy-focused non-profits. She loves traveling with her family, quality time with wonderful friends, reading, true crime podcasts, crafting, and helping her husband renovate their new home.

Kimberly values every opportunity to talk about the life-changing power of public education and the lifelong impacts of dedicated educators!