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Educators » Community

AMS Recognition Awards

Paying tribute to members of our community is integral to the AMS mission.

Every year, through a variety of awards, the American Montessori Society honors individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the Montessori Movement. AMS is proud to honor and recognize the ways in which they move Montessori forward.

  • An ordinary teacher cannot be transformed into a Montessori teacher, but must be created anew, having rid herself of pedagogical prejudices.

    Maria Montessori, Education for a New World

AMS Living Legacy Award

Each year, the American Montessori Society Living Legacy Award honors an individual for their lifetime of dedication and service to AMS and the Montessori Movement. While recipients of other AMS recognition awards may have made an impact in just one area, the Living Legacy has had several if not many impactful roles in Montessori; for example, as a school or program administrator, teacher, author, researcher, mentor, presenter, lobbyist, union steward, education activist, board director, committee or commission member, and/or community leader.

Since the inception of this award in 1993, the Living Legacy honoree has played a critical role in helping to raise monies for AMS Teacher Education Scholarships, such as by serving as an inspiring speaker for fundraising events created for this purpose. The Living Legacy also delivers an address at AMS’s annual conference, The Montessori Event.

Your donation in honor of the Living Legacy supports a cherished AMS practice: the awarding of scholarships to aspiring Montessori educators at AMS-affiliated teacher education programs.

Recipients

  • 2008: Betsy Coe
  • 2007: Dottie Sweet Feldman
  • 2006: Aline D. Wolff
  • 2005: Celma Pinho Perry
  • 2004: Bretta Weiss Wolff
  • 2003: Sr. Anne McCarrick
  • 2002: Sr. Anthonita Porta
  • 2001: Ruth Corey Selman
  • 2000: Carole Wolfe Korngold
  • 1999: Beverly A. McGhee
  • 1998: Margaret Farmer
  • 1997: Joy Starry Turner
  • 1996: Margaret Loeffler
  • 1995: Effie Weinberg
  • 1994: Virginia Varga
  • 1993: Sr. Carolina Gomez del Valle

Dr. Nancy McCormick Rambusch Award

AMS recognizes individuals who have made significant advances in raising the profile of Montessori education through this annual award. It is named in honor of education visionary Dr. Nancy McCormick Rambusch, whose vigorous efforts were vital to the founding of AMS and the growth of the Montessori Movement. 

Recipients

  • 2020: Roslyn D. Williams, posthumously
  • 2019: Martha McDermott
  • 2018: Marlene Barron
  • 2017: John J. McDermott and Virginia Hennes

Words from Our Recipients

  • I had been teaching almost twenty years when I discovered Montessori. But once I did, there was no turning back! I wanted to share it with as many children as possible, especially those children who would not normally be privy to this wonderful way of learning.
    Dr. Juliet King

    2022 AMS Living Legacy Recipient

  • We all know that our work as educators is world-changing as we impact the lives of the children, families, and our colleagues with whom we come into contact each and every day. One way that our influence can go well beyond our own classrooms and schools is through involvement in our global membership organization. Join me in finding new ways to get involved at AMS! Together we move Montessori forward! We all know that our work as educators is world-changing as we impact the lives of the children, families, and our colleagues with whom we come into contact each and every day. One way that our influence can go well beyond our own classrooms and schools is through involvement in our global membership organization. Join me in finding new ways to get involved at AMS! Together we move Montessori forward!
    Anna Perry

    2021 AMS Community Service Award Recipient

  • My admiration for Nancy McCormick Rambusch has grown as I have read her writing and heard stories from those who knew her. It seems fairly certain that without her dogged determination to establish a more culturally relevant approach to Montessori education in America, I might not have discovered Montessori education.
    Mary Schneider

    2021 Nancy McCormick Rambusch Trailblazer Award Recipient

  • After 45 years of this work, I cherish this opportunity to thank AMS for giving me—and all of us—a platform where I—where we—can work together, think together, dream together of ways to get better and better at fulfilling Montessori’s vision of a world that is worthy of our children.
    Biff Maier

    2021 AMS Living Legacy Recipient

Douglas M. Gravel Benefactor Award

AMS acknowledges those whose generosity has contributed to the sustainability and growth of the organization through an annual award named in honor of the late Douglas M. Gravel, one of AMS’s most consistent and generous benefactors. Doug, along with his wife, Maria Gravel, provided strong and unwavering support to the American Montessori Society from its earliest days. 

Recipients

  • 2021: MaryEllen Kordas
  • 2020: Kathy Roemer
  • 2019: Judith McCartin Scheide
  • 2018: Karen Kenison
  • 2017: Elizabeth Bronsil

Dr. Maria Montessori Ambassador Award

This award honors individuals who, through their work in a variety of arenas such as the arts, sports, government, and higher education, are fostering a landscape in which Montessori education cannot only thrive, but flourish.

Recipients

Watch Alice Walter’s Acceptance Speech from 2024

“Whether it was the restaurant or the edible school yard, or just the way that I communicate is always thinking about the senses. Those are our pathways into our minds and we’re living in a sensorially deprived world. So we need this in every school on the planet.”

Read the Announcement

Watch Ashley Judd’s Acceptance Speech from 2023

“I know there are many deserving folks who work passionately and diligently and so ethically on behalf of children and to be recognized by you is very meaningful to me.”

Read the Announcement

Community Service Award

AMS Community Service awards honor outstanding volunteers and recognize the impact they have made to AMS.

Recipients

Montessori Innovator Award

This annual award honors up-and-coming individuals for their original and inventive contributions to the practice and experience of Montessori education. Recipients demonstrate mastery of the delicate task of introducing new ideas/approaches while remaining ever true to the philosophy and practice as articulated by Dr. Montessori. Learn more about how AMSHQ is practicing innovation every day.

Recipients

See our latest awards announcement