
Arts in Education Award Categories
Rising Star – Presented to an arts educator demonstrating excellence in his or her first 3 years of teaching.
Distinguished Service to the Profession – Presented to an educator who has not only provided outstanding service to his or her students but also to his or her colleagues and the field of arts education.
Arts Teaching Excellence Awards – Presented to an elementary, middle and high school arts teacher who has gone above and beyond in their field.
The Kay Arms Lifetime Achievement Award – Presented to an educator who has dedicated his or her life to arts education.
In 2019, we renamed our most prestigious award. Founding board member and supporter, Kay Arms has dedicated her life to Young Audiences and the success of the students in Northeast Texas; she has been diligent in making sure the arts were, and remain a part of the core curriculum.
2020 Arts in Education Awards Honorees
Moving to Tyler in 1988 with her husband, Stephen and their children, Jamie established a thriving Suzuki string studio that would get to “open” for the ETSO park concerts. Jamie returned to teaching in the schools in 2000 as orchestra director at The Brook Hill School. While there, Jamie led her orchestra to two state championships, consistent sweepstakes and superior ratings, and students qualifying for All-Region and All-State. She was also deeply honored to be selected as the recipient of the 2010 Noted Circle award by the Tyler Youth Orchestra (now ETYO) for her “service to the youth and community of Tyler as musician and instructor”, and in 2016 was named the TAPPS Fine Arts Teacher of the Year. In 2016, Jamie retired from her position at Brook Hill with the March birth of her first grandchild. In 2017, Jamie received the Who’s Who Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in Music Education.
School retirement was short lived with Jamie’s eldest daughter, Sarah taking an orchestra position in 2016 with TISD. Since then, Jamie has been a Tyler ISD string specialist, sectional coach, orchestra assistant, at Robert E Lee High School with her daughter, Sarah. Jamie‘s love for two of God’s amazing creations, children and music, continue to motivate her to educate, equip, challenge and nurture children in music and life.

For 25 years in Amarillo, Mr. Fowler was in full-time music ministry, first at Paramount Terrace Christian Church, and then at First Christian Church. He also continued his work in schools, judging UIL competitions in Odessa, Amarillo and Dallas, as well as a clinician to local school choirs and All District Choirs. He was also Vice President of Church and Community Choirs for Texas Choral Directors Association in the nineties. He retired from ministry in 2016 and moved to Tyler to be closer to family and to get back to his first love, teaching children about music. He loves his school and his profession.








Regi Fowler
Distinguished Service to the Profession
Douglas Elementary (TISD)
Angela currently serves as the team lead for the visual and performing arts team at her school and is deeply involved in Caldwell’s arts integration team. In the community, Angela serves as the Chair of the City of Tyler’s Downtown Arts Coalition. In 2019, she was a featured speaker at UT Tyler’s first Professional Practices Art Symposium to encourage art majors to pursue the fulfilling and needed field of art educators.
Her personal work includes the mural under the Gentry bridge “Forgiveness”, mixed media pieces, and in her most recent work she welded a passion flower out of steel to contrast nature and man- made materials. She led her students in painting a mural downtown that showcases the joys of childhood on a wall that had historically been subject to vandalism.
Her passions include exposing young people to art and art experiences in the studio and in the community, helping core teachers integrate visual arts into their subjects, and adding positivity through art. Jennings believes that art is an integral tool in a student’s success academically, emotionally, and socially.








Angela Jennings
Distinguished Service to the Profession
Caldwell Arts Academy (TISD)








Ricardo Rodriguez
Rising Star
Ramey Elementary (TISD)








Amanda Dunn-Meelkop
Arts Teaching Excellence: Elementary
Dixie Elementary (TISD)
Bobi Jo began her degree at Grace College of the Bible in Omaha, Nebraska where she met her husband Don. Once their boys were in school full-time, she decided to finish her Bachelor of Arts in Music Education at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. Bobi Jo is certified in Conversational Solfege, Orff Instrumentation and World Drumming.
During her 20 years of teaching, she has directed vocal jazz, show, choirs, choir and elementary choirs. Her high school choirs have won multiple awards all over the upper Midwest. Her show choir, Sound Sensation, performed in New York City shortly after 9/11.
While at Moore Middle School, Bobi Jo has grown the program to almost double the size in just three short years. Every year she has students performing with the Region 21 All Region Honor Choir. With the Tyler ISD Foundation Grant for Great Idea she received this past January, she will begin a show choir on the Moore Middle School campus. She looks forward to getting kids excited about singing and expressing their love for music through show choir.








Bobi Jo Friesen
Arts Teaching Excellence: Middle
Moore Middle School (TISD
teaching art in the public-school system for the past 26 years. She taught one year at Pittsburg
Junior High, and the following year started teaching at Gilmer High School where she taught for 14
years. She has always believed in instilling in her students a love for art and pride for one’s
community. While at Gilmer, she and her students worked closely with the City of Gilmer
creating two large scale murals for their downtown area. They also worked with local businesses
on inside mural projects. Her students recreated over 100 paintings by famous
artists that lined the hallways of the high school. In 1998 Kelly was named Teacher of the Year
for Gilmer Independent School District. She is currently in her 11th year teaching at Harmony High School and continues to encourage artistic expression and a love for the arts. Her students work can be seen all around the school through various murals and art projects. Kelly was born and raised in Upshur County and loves being able to work at the same school she attended growing up. She received her
Associates Degree in Art at Tyler Junior College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Art and
Education from the University of Texas, Tyler. Kelly considers herself extremely blessed to be able to introduce and encourage a love for art to each and every student who enters her classroom.








Kelly Laminack
Arts Teaching Excellence: High School
Harmony High School




TEXAS BANK AND TRUST
The Kay Arms Lifetime Achievement Award
Laura Swartz (Tyler ISD) 2019
Denny Whitley (Whitehouse ISD) 2018
Johnny Ray (All Saints Episcopal School) 2018
Distinguished Service to the Profession
Dana Sepko (Tyler ISD) 2019
Darren Richardson (Gladewater ISD) 2018
Rising Star
Adrienne Stine (Tyler ISD) 2019
Chauncy Williams (Winona ISD) 2019
Alison Adkins (Mineola ISD) 2018
Arts Teaching Excellence – Elementary
Kristin Pool (Tyler ISD) 2019
Cynthia Dempsey (Tyler ISD) 2018
Arts Teaching Excellence – Middle School
Amy Bailey (Lindale ISD) 2019
Glenn Ballard (Brook Hill) 2018
Arts Teaching Excellence – High School
Amy Clemens (Tyler ISD) 2019