Photo Submitted

FOLEY - Julie Champion teaches Peer Helping and English 11. She graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Secondary Education and began teaching English at Foley High School in 1998. Through Peer Helping, she was inspired to earn her master’s degree in School Counseling from the University of South Alabama. She was Foley High School’s 2001 Teacher of the Year and served as English Department Chairperson for eight years. She spent three years as a Ruby Payne Trainer of Trainers, educating Baldwin County faculty about the importance of understanding economic diversity and its cultural impact. She is currently the FOCUS club advisor, junior class sponsor and prom sponsor.

She has been training peer helpers since the program’s inception at FHS in 1999. In 2004, she began training trainers in order to expand peer programs in various elementary, middle and high schools across Alabama. She has trained hundreds of facilitators and students in various school systems. Through the National Association of Peer Program Professionals, she is a Certified Peer Program Educator (since 2005) and Certified Trainer/Consultant (since 2010). Since 2005 the program at FHS has been a Certified Peer Program - the first CPP in Baldwin County. In 2011, she was named the NAPPP Young Peer Program Coordinator and was the 2016 NAPPP Educator of the Year.