DoDEA Americas Announces 2020 Region Principal of the Year

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Americas region proudly announces that Dr. Terri Marshall, the DoDEA Virtual High School (DVHS) principal, located at Marine Corps Base Quantico, as the 2020 DoDEA Americas Principal of the Year.

"It is my honor to recognize our DoDEA Americas 2020 Principal of the Year, Dr. Terri Marshall,” said Dr. Judith Minor, the DoDEA Americas Director for Student Excellence. “Her consistent dedication in leading the DoDEA virtual school and staff in support of our military-connected students worldwide provides a wealth of curricular offerings with ongoing virtual support. Her work has truly made a difference in many, many students' lives. This recognition of excellence is richly deserved."

Dr. Marshall began her career in education as a math teacher in Washington, D.C. In 1994, she began working for DoDEA as a teacher at H.H. Arnold High School in Wiesbaden, Germany. From there, she moved into a leadership role, serving as the assistant principal at Seoul American High School in South Korea. Dr. Marshall was a principal at Hanau High School in Germany, and Lakenheath High School in England. In 2005, Dr. Marshall served as the high school principal in residence at DoDEA headquarters. She transitioned to being the principal at DoDEA Virtual High School in May 2008.

The DVHS’s mission to provide exemplary educational programs that inspire and prepare students for success in a global environment. It offers a variety of online courses to meet the academic and career-oriented goals of DoDEA eligible students. The course offerings, including Advanced Placement courses, are designed to address all DoDEA graduation requirements. The online courses offered by DVHS have the same level of rigor, adhere to the same standards as the traditional DoDEA curriculum, and align to the same College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS). The DVHS online courses provide the additional benefit of preparing students for success in the 21st-century environment.

As an online school, Dr. Marshall says she models best practices by using a variety of web-conferencing tools for its world-wide faculty and encourages her staff to think of user-experience by asking how this tool would support their users and their unique learning processes before any implementation. She also highlighted that her collaborative and supportive leadership philosophy in DVHS has become a DoDEA model of collaborative leadership as she develops teacher-leaders like student-athletes. This is evident throughout her school in the development of teacher-leaders, in our shared decision-making process, and the innovative educational opportunities offered to students.

She received a bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in education from George Washington University and a doctorate in education from Argosy University in 2014.

Additionally, Dr. Marshall is involved in several educational and community-based organizations. She is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated.

The DoDEA Principal of the Year Program recognizes outstanding school principals, who have succeeded in leading high-quality learning opportunities for students as well as demonstrating exemplary contributions to the profession. The process begins at the nomination level where principals are nominated by peers, employees, parents, students or community members.

DoDEA recognizes one school PoY in each of the three regions; Pacific, Americas and Europe. Selection for each region Principal of the Year is by a region panel using specified criteria. Three principals were named Region Principal of the Year for 2020. Each Region Principal of the Year is invited to apply for the DoDEA Principal of the Year program.

One of the selected Regional PoY recipients will be selected as the DoDEA PoY, and proceed through the appropriate national association nomination process, representing DoDEA at the national level. During the year, the chosen Principal of the Year will serve as ambassador to their profession, be provided leadership growth opportunities, and support DoDEA priorities and initiatives.