2024 Remarkable Women nominee: Dr. Aimee Barber
ACADIANA, La. (KLFY) -- This week's remarkable women profile takes us to school, specifically the classroom of Dr. Aimee Barber.
Barber started her career in elementary school and now she's in a not so traditional setting as an educator and that's because she's the teacher of teachers. Here is why Barber is a remarkable woman, inside and outside of the classroom.
Just a few minutes of sitting in her classroom or talking to Barber and you can see and feel her passion for education.
"I started my career in education as a first grade teacher and then transitioned into higher education. So now I get the great honor of teaching future teachers, which I absolutely love," said Barber.
Her students are educators, she's the teacher who's teaching teachers. So what is it about her and her experiences that landed her in this position? Aimee says she began her teaching career in a high needs, high poverty school before teaching in an expensive private school, giving her an eye-opening perspective.
"I began my teaching career in a very high needs high poverty school here in Lafayette, and my turn of events ended up in an expensive private school located very nearby the other school. And I think just seeing the differences and what children, the kinds of educational opportunities that they were receiving, the way that even the teachers were treated, that were valued and respected as professionals, the difference in those different situations just taught me a lot just by watching," Barber explained.
She watched for some time before asking herself some key questions that would shape not only her future, but the future of educators and students in Acadiana and beyond.
"And so, during my years as a first grade teacher, I had a wonderful experience. I was able to travel the country, go to different conferences. I was able to pursue my master's degree that was covered by my school, and it just made me start to think, why isn't this stuff available to all teachers and all kids? Why aren't they getting the same kinds of things," Barber said.
Dr. Barber, a wife and mother of three is currently an assistant professor at UL in the college of education and human development. She has a long list of impressive educational and professional accomplishments including helping the Lafayette Parish school board obtain a $1.4 million reimagine schools grant to address the current teacher shortage.
Her dissertation was the recipient of the 2021 National Association of Teacher Educators Distinguished Dissertation of the year award. She was also recently recognized by UL as the 2023 recipient of the Dr. Ray P. Authement Excellence in Teaching award, one of the highest honors awarded by UL.
You can watch our finalists' profiles every Tuesday of this month during Passe Partout, and News 10 at 5 and 10 p.m.