Emilee Higdon is a secondary English teacher in Macon County, and a passionate advocate for North Carolina’s western region. Beginning her career at UNC-Wilmington, she attained her BA in English Studies and Secondary Education in 2018. She spent her first four years in education at Union Academy, an alternative school for students with various barriers to their education. In her second year of teaching, she became the 2021 NCCAT Prudential North Carolina Beginning Teacher of the Year. Emilee continued on to get her MA in English Literature from Gardner-Webb University in 2022, and now shares her love for literature and writing with her rural Appalachian students. As a Franklin native, she understands the values and culture of her students, and seeks to lift their unique voices while offering them opportunities to expand their horizons. Her goal is to help students achieve more than they thought possible for themselves. In addition to her English classes, she also teaches multiple dance classes a week, and teaches a class at Western Carolina University for future PE teachers on the integration of dance into their classes. Her passions for rural Appalachia, dance, and global mindsets fuel her pedagogy.