Ms. Malysa Chandler’s passion for teaching was revealed at an early age. As a child, she meticulously enjoyed playing school with her siblings and friends. She loved playing the role of teacher but equally enjoyed taking on the role of student. Malysa believes this contributed greatly to her success as a teacher leader in that not only is she capable and willing to lead, but she embraces the knowledge and teachings of others.

During Malysa’s teaching career, she has taught secondary and post-secondary science courses. While teaching science at Shades Valley High School, she served as the Science Department Chairperson and served on the school wide leadership team. As a Jefferson County lead LDC (Literacy Design Collaborative) mentor, Malysa has modeled how to build student achievement through proven best practices and real world learning. Ms. Chandler served as the Shades Valley High School Teacher of the Year in 2017. In addition she was named the 2017-2018 Jefferson County Secondary Teacher of the Year. Malysa later served as one of the 2017 sixteen finalist (Sweet Sixteen) for Alabama Teacher of the Year. More recently, she was named the Shades Valley Rotary Teacher of the Year.

Ms. Chandler is featured on the Teaching Channel modeling powerful literacy practices. Her video is shown at numerous high school and middle school professional development sessions across the world. In addition she has presented at professional conferences on student engagement and effective standardized test practices. She is the co-author of the published work Make it Like the Real world: Adolescent’s Recommendation for the Design of a Digital HIV Prevention Game published in the Journal of HIV/AIDS.

Malysa received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Miles College. She later attended Alabama State University where she received a Biology Master of Education degree. In 2014, Ms. Chandler graduated from UAB with a Masters of Art degree in Community Health.

Malysa enjoys fulfilling her purpose as an educator. She believes learning should be fun and stimulating because she knows that engaging lessons are pivotal to a student’s academic success. Ms. Chandler believes that her calling as an educator does not include educating but is involves inspiring, guiding, motivating and cultivating students.