Rachel Demalderis, a veteran Special Education English Teacher at Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (MELS), a NYC Outward Bound School in Queens, has been named the 2025 recipient of the R. Gaynor McCown Excellence in Teaching Award. Rachel will be honored at this year’s Gala on Monday, May 12.
In her 11 years in the classroom, Rachel Demalderis has built a legacy of equity-centered instruction, student empowerment, and deeply human connection. At the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (MELS) in Queens, she takes on many roles: Instructional Coach, Special Education Coordinator, Crew Team Leader, and Track & Field Coach. Through each of these, she fosters community and inspires growth.
Walk into Rachel’s classroom or Crew, and you’ll see students setting their own learning goals, reflecting on who they are and who they want to be, and engaging in meaningful conversations about the world around them. Whether guiding students through Shakespeare with a critical lens or leading hands-on projects around food justice, Rachel ensures that all learners are seen, supported, and stretched.
“She is both exacting and full of love for her students,” writes Claire Wolff, her nominator. “She demands a great deal of them because she knows they can do it, and provides clear and intentional scaffolds to help them get there.”
Rachel’s approach as a Special Education English Teacher centers the whole student. She’s co-led interdisciplinary projects on topics like food justice, helped students run a farmstand to serve their community, and infused her curriculum with culturally responsive materials that reflect and challenge students’ lived experiences.
Learn more about Rachel’s work:
This story from IncludeNYC spotlights the self-advocacy program Rachel helped bring to MELS, where students with IEPs gained the tools to understand their strengths, plan their futures, and advocate for themselves.
She also believes that education doesn’t stop at the classroom door. In partnership with IncludeNYC, Rachel helped bring a series of workshops to MELS that empowered students with disabilities to understand their IEPs, identify their strengths, and begin planning for their futures. The program helped students see themselves more clearly — not just in terms of their needs, but also their potential.
“Many of the students that engaged in High School Launch had been receiving services for years without having a full understanding of their disability, their strengths, and the services they were receiving,” Rachel shared in her nomination. “It was inspiring to see how much they learned about themselves.”
“She brings humility, humor, and joy to everything she does, and reminds us what it looks like to teach with purpose,” Wolff adds.
Rachel’s leadership also extends to her colleagues. She has facilitated professional learning across the MELS faculty, mentored new teachers with compassion and clarity, and helped shape schoolwide systems that support inclusive instruction and reflective practice.
She is the kind of educator who sees the full picture, and works every day to ensure every learner — student or adult — feels equipped, empowered, and supported.
About the Award
The Gaynor McCown Award was established to honor the memory of R. Gaynor McCown, a former public school teacher, longtime Board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools, Executive Director of the Teaching Commission, and champion of the profession of teaching. The Award recognizes a teacher or other staff member from NYC Outward Bound Schools’ network of schools who exemplifies the qualities that Gaynor herself exhibited as a teacher and that she sought to nurture and support in others.
This year’s nominees and award winner will be recognized at the 2025 Gala on Monday, May 12.
Congratulations to all of the outstanding teachers who were nominated for this year’s award!
- Kaitlin Langdon, CASA
- Janice Wong, MAELS
- Taiyo Ebato, Forsyth
- Michael Graber, Channel View
- Suzanne El-Nakla, SWOW
- Marian Giordano, CSSJ
- Alyssa Nichols, IS 27
- Milagros Cruz, Leaders
- Christina Prince, BCS
- Sam Bright, Liberty Ave Middle School
- Nicole Zernone, West End Secondary School
- Marnie Ponce, Middle School for Art and Philosophy
- Sakina Walkdrip, Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance