Three Whatcom County educators recognized for student, community impact
Three Whatcom County educators have been recognized for their impact on students and the community through the Brown & Brown Excellence in Education Award Program.
Chifundo Vis, who teaches fifth grade at Isom Elementary School in the Lynden School District, and Beverly Williams, who teaches third grade at Assumption Catholic School in Bellingham, were named Educator of the Year at a public and private school respectively.
Kenneth Quehrn, band director at Lynden Christian School, received a special award for his dedication to teaching even as he dealt with flood damage to his home.
Brown & Brown Insurance Services launched its educator award program in 2024. Teachers are nominated by parents and students, and then narrowed down to the top five in the categories of public and private schools. A panel of community members unaffiliated with Brown & Brown then selects the two winners.
“We wanted to recognize and say how much we appreciate the excellent teachers we have in Whatcom County,” said Paul Kenner, a longtime commercial agent at Brown & Brown’s Lynden office.
Kenner helped create the Excellence in Education Award Program with Alex Bogaard, president of Brown & Brown’s Seattle and Lynden offices, as a way to give back to the community.
The program initially only recognized public school teachers; and while they got responses, “it wasn’t overwhelming,” Kenner said. They expanded the program to include private schools the following year. By 2026, it was so well known that they ran out of seats at the May 27 award ceremony at the Jansen Art Center in Lynden.
Bogaard said he sees the awards as a way to both recognize educators and engage students. He explained that nominating teachers is a team exercise, and forces kids to think about how to make a compelling point in favor of someone else.
For younger students, this may be done through artistic endeavors like collages. For older ones – as was the case with Quehrn’s nomination – it may be through a 10-minute video showing how students worked with their teacher to rebuild his home after December’s flooding in Nooksack.
While Quehrn wasn’t selected as the Educator of the Year, Borgaard said he was so moved by the nomination video that he created a special award.
Quehrn, who’s worked in education for 32 years, said he was surprised by the award and “very humbled” by it.
“Just to be recognized was huge, and then to be able to actually have this special award, it means an awful lot,” Quehrn said.
Fellow private school educator Williams said she was similarly shocked to receive an award. She helped to promote the contest earlier this year, never thinking that she would be nominated – let alone win.
She said she puts a lot of time and energy into teaching, and it felt good to have that recognized.
“I think that my passion is bringing learning to life for the kids, and so many times they don’t even realize that they’re learning, they’re just so immersed and engaged in what they’re doing, and I think that’s so powerful,” Williams said.
Vis said she knew of the award program, but also didn’t think she had a chance of winning, both because of her background and the large number of other potential competitors. Vis moved to Lynden from Malawi, and has worked in the school district in some capacity since 2006. She got her first full-time teaching job in 2015.
Vis said she was speechless when they called her name at the awards ceremony.
“So many times teachers put in so much work that they really do not see the impact,” she said.
She said she was shocked to learn that the parents of her former students – some of whom are now graduating – still held onto classroom projects and remembered her all these years later.
Borgaard said schools are often on tight budgets, and educators frequently use their own money to pay for classroom supplies. It’s why the awards from Brown & Brown come with $5,000 to be split between the educators and the schools.
“By and large teachers give a lot and receive less than they give,” said Borgaard.
Vis said she’d like to see the money go to enrichment programs for English language learners, and Williams said she’s considering working to bring back after-school programs at her school.
“It’s been very gratifying to see the response to (the award program) and see how excited the teachers are,” Kenner said.
Nominations for next year’s Brown & Brown Excellence in Education Award Program are now open online at bbrownexcellenceineducation.org.