As a teacher trying to establish our future with the ability to embrace children’s love of learning and spark an interest in school, Roxanne Hiller has prided herself on individualizing for each student and finding a way to reach out to all children and their different development levels. Her hard work enabled her to receive the Educator of the Year Award through the California Head Start Association and her program to receive higher scores in all dimensions nationwide.

Angelica Vilaverde knew from a young age she had the makings to be a teacher, but it wasn't until 2009 when she found out how much of an impact she would have on the lives of students. Working with low-income, at-risk families brought some challenges Angelica's way but what drew her in as an Early Head Start teacher was listening to their stories and using parents as a key instrument in their child’s successful educational journey.

Renetta Goeson has made it her mission to improve the schooling of children in her tribe, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (SWO) of the Lake Traverse Reservation. Her goal is to provide an environment in which children are respected as sacred and capable and of having enormous potential.

The Baraga-Houghton-Keweenaw Child Development Board provides high-quality early childhood services to children and families including health and wellness services, such as pregnancy education, breast feeding support, home visiting, health and developmental screenings, and medical and dental care.

Over the last 30 years, Jerry Tello has dedicated his efforts to preventing and healing the pain of relationship/community violence, teen pregnancy, fatherless-ness and internalized oppression. In 1988, together with a group of other dedicated men, Jerry Tello developed the National Compadres Network, an organization dedicated to building and strengthening the positive involvement of Latino men in the lives of their children and families.

John Sowers was inspired to do something more for children without fathers, so he began The Mentoing Project's iniative to make sure that every young person in America that needed a mentor had one.

There are 25 million children in America who don't live with their fathers, and a good number of those rarely or never see their dads. Just a quick look at the research will show you that fatherlessness comes with tragic, negative consequences for children and for our society. Casey Carey has made it his goal to make sure every child grows up with a father figure.

Women In Fatherhood, Inc. (WIFI) is a social justice organization working to break down structural and relational barriers preventing fathers and men from positively contributing to families and communities.Our goal is to engage more women and women’s groups around issues facing low-income men and fathers. To that end, Women In Fatherhood aims to serve as a bridge between policies, programs, and ideologies that have often appeared to be at odds.

J. Michael Hall leads the Strong Fathers - Strong Families iniative in hopes of letting men know what makes a father strong but we leaving it to them to realize where they have strengths and weaknesses. By focusing on what fathers do well and giving them the opportunity to do some of those things with their children, Strong Fathers - Strong Families moves men from dwelling on their deficits to living in their strengths.

A soldiers life is never easy, and with a jobless rate of 12 percent among all veterans it can be even harder at home than war. Hernán Luis y Prado works to lessen the burden of unemployment for veterans through his "Workshops for Warriors" program. With 11 veteran working for him currently, Hernán hopes that by 2015 he'll employ 50 veterans and have secured jobs for 1000 more.

As a Vietnam verteran, Bob Curry saw the opportunity to help out a new generation of soldiers when the Afganistan War and War in Iraq began. He began DryHootch, a non-profit organizaiton, with the goal in mind to give veterans a safe, alcohol-free, drug-free environment to deal with the PTS they might be feeling after returning home.

Stephen Sherman works tirelessly to make sure that veterans receive quality medical treatment, avoid homelessness, and have food to eat everyday. His daily mantra is "leave no soldier behind" and he lives it.

Samuel Luna is a Vietnam veteran who suffered from PTS until he attended a weekend program to help him understand his Vietnam experience and the role PTS had played and continued to play in his life. Samuel now seeks to spread this treatment to help other veterans.

Gail's mission is to bestow a universal symbol and token of thanks, solace, and remembrance to those who serve, past and present, in harm's way to protect and defend our lives and freedoms. These tokens are given by her organization Quilts of Honor America not for profit, but simply for the gratitude and thanks that she hopes they bring to each veterans life.