Innovative Veteran Educator Wins Pillar Award

COLUMBIA, SC – Donna Teuber, team leader for Technology Integration in Richland School District Two, is the recipient of the 2014 Pillar of Leadership in Technology Award. She and other Pillar Award winners were recognized at a recent banquet.

In his nomination, district Chief Technology Officer Tom Cranmer notes that Teuber was a key leader in the development of R2 Innovates, an incubator which promotes innovative ideas and design thinking. The goal of the incubator is reaching advanced levels of technology integration with teaching and learning in such a way that would become a spring board toward transforming education.

Teuber led a research and development team that sought out best practices in the innovation community. In 2013, the team visited several schools and districts in Silicon Valley to gather ideas for how best practices could be adopted for use in Richland Two. The team also visited the Google campus in Mountain View. At the Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, the research team pitched ideas for innovation to an engineering group.  The group was so impressed that a member of the team accompanied Intel to the Bett Show in London to share ideas.

“Under Mrs. Teuber’s leadership, the innovation incubator system is an innovation in itself, and has the single best potential to make meaningful progress toward educational transformation,” Cranmer said.

Teuber is a veteran education technologist and a Google Certified Teacher. She serves on the South Carolina EdTech Planning Committee and is a Discovery Education Network STAR educator. Teuber is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and has served locally in public education for nearly three decades.

The Palmetto Pillar Awards program, started in 1998, praises the area’s top leaders in technology innovation.  The annual awards banquet and reception continue the collaboration of the Columbia Chamber, IT Council and IT-oLogy as they increase IT presence throughout the Columbia region.

The Leadership award was sponsored by Adams and Reese law firm. All awards were sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield.