Two ECU alumni recognized by NCCAT for teaching talent
![](https://education.ecu.edu/news/wp-content/pv-uploads/sites/540/kurt-garner.jpg)
J.H. Rose High School business teacher Kurt Garner received the 2023 Career & Technical Education (CTE) Teacher of the Year award from the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT).
Garner received his BSBE in marketing education (2005) and MAEd in business education (2007) from the Business and Information Technologies Education program (now located in the Department of Mathematics Education, Science Education and Instructional Technology.
This year is Garner’s sixth at JH Rose and 17th with Pitt County Schools, with his previous years being at DH Conley High School. Garner has previously been selected as the PCS Teacher of the Year (2011) and the North Carolina Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Adviser of the Year (2016). He also serves on FBLA’s state executive board, is an adviser for the National Technical Honor Society and has been a member of the National Business Education Association since 2005.
NCCAT’s runner-up for the CTE award is Barnanne Creech, a family and consumer sciences teacher at Zebulon Gifted & Talented Magnet Middle School in Wake County. Creech received her MAEd in Health Teacher Education in 1999 from ECU. She serves as a teacher mentor, department chair and school improvement chair in addition to leading monthly district PLC meetings.