Jamey Olney

2022 DoDEA Teacher of the Year

Jamey Olney teaches 7th and 8th grade immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking students in Modesto, CA, where she serves as the English Language Development site coordinator. Jamey previously taught grades K-8 and has served as an instructional coach and school administrator in underserved communities throughout Northern California and for the Department of Defense Education Activity in Germany. She helped develop the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Literacy: Reading-Language Arts certificate and was featured in the 2016 ASCD documentary “Disrupting Poverty”.

In 2019-2020 she served as a California Teach Plus Policy Fellow and Teach Plus Emergent Bilingual Change Agent Network leader. In 2023, she completed a field study in South Africa as an NEA Global Learning Fellow. She was recognized as 2000 DoDEA Teacher of the Year, 2020 California League of Middle Schools Educator of the Year, 2021 California Teacher Association School Bell award, 2024 Project Safe After School Stanislaus County Teacher of the Year, and 2026 Empire Union Teacher of the Year.

Jamey graduated from Fresno State with a B.A. in Liberal Studies and received her MEd in Curriculum and Instruction and her MEd in Administration from Chapman University. Her policy and research interests include English Learners, community and family engagement, and global learning.