Beth Ann Overfield, visual art teacher and department head at Hagerstown Jr.-Sr. High School, has been named one of 28 educators nationwide selected for a professional development fellowship.
Overfield, who has taught at Nettle Creek Schools since 2009, will join the 2025–2026 ARTEFFECT Ambassadors cohort, a yearlong program that connects middle and high school educators from across the country through online learning. The program, founded in 2016 and hosted by the Lowell Milken Family Foundation, is focused on “Unsung Heroes” — individuals from history whose actions made a lasting impact but are not widely known. Participants explore creative approaches to visual storytelling, character education and arts integration while developing capstone projects to apply in their classrooms and communities.
Overfield and other fellows will take part in professional development sessions, receive mentoring from experienced educators and complete a capstone project demonstrating new teaching approaches inspired by the program’s themes. Each ambassador receives a $1,250 stipend, $250 in materials funding and a certificate of participation upon completion.
More information is available at arteffectlmc.org.
A version of this article appeared in the November 19 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.