Director of education for the Upper Grand District School Board Martha Rogers was honoured on May 3 with the Guelph YM-YWCA’s Women of Achievement Lifetime award in the education and training category.
Lifetime Achievement awards are presented to nominees with 30 or more years of service in their category.
Rogers is the longest serving director of education in the province (16 years) and locally was the first woman to be a school superintendent. She has chaired the Council of English Public Directors of Education and the Council of Ontario Directors of Education and serves as a member of the advisory board to the Education Research Development Institute In 1998, Rogers oversaw the amalgamation of the Wellington and Dufferin County boards of education that resulted in the formation of the Upper Grand District School Board. She continues as the board’s director of education to today and remains, after more than 35 years in education, committed to public education and student success.
As a Guelph Rotarian for many years, she is a member of that group’s literacy committee. New supervisory officers and directors of education attend her ongoing workshops and courses provided through a number of Ontario educational organizations. Rogers often refers to herself as just a “grade 1 teacher” but has a background in special education and a PHD with a double Masters Degree in Special Education and Statistics from the University of Toronto.
