The Agnes Meyer award is presented annually to one outstanding teacher from each Washington metropolitan area school district by The Washington Post Company Educational Foundation. This year’s Montgomery County winner, Allison Finn, has been teaching English at James Hubert Blake High School since 2000.

Finn teaches a range of English classes at Blake, including Advanced Placement Language. She is the faculty sponsor of the school’s yearbook and has served as a class sponsor, soccer coach, and new teacher mentor, among other contributions. Outside of school she is a volunteer fire fighter and is trained as a paramedic.

Blake Principal Carole Goodman praises Finn’s sensitivity to the needs of all students, encouraging them “to achieve at levels they did not think possible.”

“Her humanness is what reaches students,” says Goodman,” but her knowledge and ability to make them successful writers, critics and scholars is what engages them.”

Finn brings her passion for intellectual exploration to the classroom. “I love to learn,” she says, “and part of the beauty of being a teacher is that I get to forever be a student: I get to forever engage in the intellectual conversation.”

Following graduation from George Mason University in 1999, Finn began her teaching career in Virginia. She went on to earn a master’s degree in Secondary English Curriculum and Instruction and achieved certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in 2008.

Finn will be honored, along with other areas winners, on May 11 at The Washington Post as part of the annual Agnes Meyer recognition. She also will be recognized on April 28 at the Champions for Children annual gala, sponsored by the Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education.