Davis Education Foundation -

A Mighty Heart in the Back of the Room

There are educators who are easy to spot. They lead assemblies, run programs, take the mic and rally a room. Then there are educators who are harder to find because they are busy doing what students need, right now, in real time, with no audience.

Shaunee McFadden is the second kind.

Today at Knowlton Elementary School, she was surprised with the $10,000 Heidi Martin Mighty Heart Educator of Excellence Award. The room was full, not because it was required, but because people wanted to be there. Davis Education Foundation board members joined Davis School District leaders, school board members and school staff to recognize a teacher whose impact is often quiet, steady and deeply felt.

The surprise took an elaborate plan

Even with an assembly staged and a room ready to celebrate, there was one problem: Shaunee was not trying to get to the assembly. She was in her classroom with a student who was struggling. Staff had to create an elaborate way to get her to the event, not because she was hard to find, but because she was exactly where her students needed her.

When she realized what was happening, she could not speak

When Shaunee finally entered the room and understood why everyone was there, emotion hit first. The applause swelled, the room rose and for a moment the whole crowd felt unified around one simple truth: this is what it looks like when a community recognizes service that is real.

Shaunee was overwhelmed. She could not speak. People who pour themselves into others are often the least prepared to receive anything back, and the gratitude in that room was impossible to miss.

Some educators change a student’s day. Some educators change a student’s story.

The kind of excellence you feel, not just measure

Shaunee is known for meeting students where they are, academically and emotionally. That work rarely looks clean on paper because it happens in the messy, human parts of a school day. It looks like calm words during a stormy moment. It looks like a plan that changes because a student needs stability more than a schedule. It looks like a teacher choosing the student over the spotlight.

That is why this award matters. It does not just recognize performance. It recognizes heart. It recognizes the educators who keep showing up with patience and resolve, even when no one is watching.

Why this award carries her name

The Heidi Martin Mighty Heart Educator of Excellence Award is named for Heidi Ann Martin, whose life was defined by resilience, courage and compassion. Born with only two chambers in her heart, she received a heart transplant as an infant and lived with years of surgeries and hospital stays.

Heidi graduated from Weber State University with honors and became a registered nurse at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, dedicating her career to caring for others. She later underwent a combined heart and liver transplant, one of the rarest medical procedures of its kind at the time. Heidi passed away in 2017, but her legacy continues through this award.

Today, that legacy felt present in a room full of people honoring an educator who embodies grit, strength and heart in the most practical way possible: by being the steady adult students can count on.

The best educators do not chase recognition

Today’s surprise was a reminder of what makes school communities strong: educators who do the hard work with patience and humanity, leaders who show up and community members who believe students deserve support that is real.