Lower School Teacher Tiffany Brakefield Honored with 2025 VAIS Innovation in Education Award

On November 3, the Virginia Association of Independent Schools (VAIS) recognized Hampton Roads Academy’s Lower School science enrichment and computer teacher Tiffany Brakefield with the prestigious 2025 Innovation in Education Award. Brakefield was one of three educators from across the Commonwealth selected for this honor, bestowed annually upon one teacher from each independent school division—Lower, Middle, and Upper School—who has made a positive impact in his or her community.

The award, presented before an audience of more than 300 educators at the VAIS’s Empowering Excellence Annual Conference at Richmond’s Collegiate School, represents statewide recognition of Brakefield’s achievements in inspiring students’ excitement about learning, motivating her fellow teachers to grow professionally, and making tangible, positive contributions to HRA’s educational programming.

According to HRA Kindergarten teacher Josephine Kovalcik, who nominated her colleague for the award, Brakefield “inspires students to delve into five domains of learning and has gone above and beyond her regular duties as the Lower School science and technology resource teacher.”

Brakefield has significantly expanded learning opportunities at the Academy, in STEM and beyond, by creatively integrating science, technology, and innovation within the curriculum. She created hands-on activities for students in the Lower School Garden, life-cycle lessons to take advantage of the cutting-edge equipment in the reimagined Martha H. Patten Hydroponics Lab and STEAM Classroom, and thematic experiments to enrich the applied learning experience in the science lab. This year, she designed and equipped the recently unveiled Lower School Robotics Room, building an evidence-based curriculum and teaching both students and teachers to program Sphero and Indi robots.

Through professional development, she trained her Lower School colleagues to integrate robotics and hydroponics into classroom learning. Her work fosters collaboration, student engagement, and project-based interdisciplinary exploration, exemplifying her dedication to advancing science and technology education.

“It is an incredible honor to receive this award,” Brakefield said. “I see it as a call to keep pushing innovation forward in our STEM curriculum at HRA, because the work of improving and reinventing learning experiences to challenge and nurture our students is never done.”