Hello, and welcome to the I Am A Rural Teacher Podcast, a project of Rural Schools Collaborative and the National Rural Education Association.

Rural teachers know that their students deserve the very best, often continuing their own education so they can better serve their learners. Dr. Brandon Renfroe completed an EdD in Rural Education at the University of West Alabama, a first-of-its-kind program, before becoming a rural science teacher in Geraldine, Alabama.

Dr. Annah Rogers, RSC’s GRAD Partnership Black Belt Regional Hub Coordinator and an assistant professor at UWA, sat down with Brandon to discuss his experiences as a rural teacher and community leader.

Supporting place-based learning in rural communities is core to the missions of RSC and the NREA, as evidenced by our shared grant work, the National Signature Project Award. Kim McCully-Mobley is a high school teacher in Aurora, Missouri, who won the 2023-2024 award to support her work creating murals with her students representing the history of her hometown.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the I Am A Rural Teacher Podcast. We’d like to thank our partners at Community Foundation of the Ozarks and Missouri State University for jointly leading the Rural Schools Collaborative Missouri Ozarks Regional Hub, where Kim is based. Special thanks to Kim for telling her story about place-based education in Aurora, and to Brian for sharing his perspective, as well. I Am A Rural Teacher is a collaborative project between Rural Schools Collaborative and the National Rural Education Association.