Winner: Rich Santer

Rich SanterEducator

Rich Santer of Levittown has received the Turner N. Wiley Teacher of the Year Award from the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Virginia based on his commitment to science, math and technology education. Santer is a fifth-grade teacher at Bowling Green Elementary School in Westbury, as well as charter president of the Levittown Library Foundation and assistant administrator of the K-Kids service club of Kiwanis International's New York District. He has brought students to the center for simulated space missions since 1996, and they have interviewed astronauts on the International Space Station via ham radio, among other things.