From the 2025 AAFEPA Conference:
AAFEPA Lifetime Achievement Award
At this time, the AAFEPA Executive Board would like to honor an extraordinary individual whose career and character truly embody this year’s theme, “Educational Legends.”
The Alabama Federal Programs Lifetime Achievement Award was established in 2021 and is awarded when there is a viable candidate. Recipients should demonstrate a commitment to Alabama public education specifically in the area of federal programs administration. Recipients should have served in an AAFEPA leadership role and made a lasting, positive impact within the association.
This year’s recipient has spent nearly four decades shaping the lives of students, empowering educators, and strengthening the reach of federal programs—not only in her own community but across Alabama and the nation. Her story is one of purpose, perseverance, and heart.
Her journey into education didn’t begin the traditional way. After earning her first bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama in fashion retail with a minor in marketing in 1983, she discovered that her true calling wasn’t in business, but in the classroom. So, she returned to the University of Alabama, earned a second degree in family and consumer science education, and began a teaching career that would impact generations.
She started teaching at Winston County High School in 1988. But even then, she was already thinking about how to better serve students beyond academics. During her second year of teaching, she began pursuing her master’s degree in school counseling—a step that would open the door to a new chapter of leadership and service.
In 1990, she became the first elementary school counselor for the Marion County Board of Education, serving at Hamilton Elementary School. For the next eight years, she provided not only guidance lessons but also hope, encouragement, and a steady hand to countless students and families.
By 1998, her leadership was undeniable. She moved into the district office, first serving as counselor for the Alternative School, then taking on additional responsibilities—Safe and Drug-Free Schools, At-Risk, federal programs, CTE, ESL, reading coaches, and homeless education. Her vision for meeting the needs of the whole child became the driving force behind her work and like many while juggling all those duties she also served as Assistant Superintendent, a position she held for nine years, before being asked to take on the district’s top role when the sitting superintendent accepted another position in 2018. She completed that term and was later elected to a full four-year term in 2021, guiding the district with grace, courage, and conviction. When she retired, she closed the book on a career spanning 38 years in public education—though, as anyone who knows her can tell you, she never really stopped serving.
Her influence reaches far beyond Marion County. She has been a longtime leader in AAFEPA and NAFEPA, serving as AAFEPA President from 2016–2018 and continuing as a member of the AAFEPA Executive Committee. For many years, she has chaired the AAFEPA Scholarship Committee and also served on the NAFEPA Scholarship Committee, helping open doors to higher education for students across the country.
Her leadership and dedication have been recognized at every level. In 2011, she was named the NAFEPA State Leadership Award recipient for Alabama, honoring her advocacy and lasting influence on federal programs nationwide. In 2022, she was selected by the School Superintendents of Alabama as the District 7 Superintendent of the Year finalist, recognizing her exceptional leadership and commitment to students, staff, and community.
Throughout her career, she has been guided by a deep and abiding faith. She often says, “When you let God have control, you never know where your journey will take you.” Those words perfectly reflect her life’s work—a journey that has taken her from teacher, to counselor, to district leader, to superintendent, and now to a lasting place of influence in both AAFEPA and NAFEPA. Her faith has been her compass, and her legacy is a living example of what it means to walk by faith, not by sight.
Even after retirement, she continues to serve on both the AAFEPA Executive Committee and the NAFEPA Board, while remaining deeply involved in her community through the Kiwanis Club, the Industrial Development Board, and other local initiatives that reflect her lifelong spirit of service.
She is, without question, a mentor, a model, and a friend to so many of us in this room. Her work reminds us that the measure of a true legend isn’t found in titles or awards, but in the lives changed and the hearts touched along the way.
And so, today it is my distinct honor and heartfelt privilege to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Mrs. Ann West.