Ellen Williams Named Freda Drath Battey Distinguished Educator

A counselor at Lincoln's Southeast and Southwest high schools has been named the winner of the 2004 Freda Drath Battey Distinguished Educator award from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Education and Human Sciences.

Ellen Williams, who has served as a work experience counselor at Southeast for several years, and last year began the School Community Intervention Program at Southwest, will receive the award at a May 13 luncheon at the Nebraska East Union on UNL's East Campus.

At Southeast, Williams developed and organized the Work-Study Program for students needing help with their graduation requirement process. At Southwest, she developed the SCIP program, which focuses on helping students with drug or alcohol problems.

"(Ellen) is an excellent communicator with the Lincoln community in obtaining jobs for the students and then following up with student progress on their job performance," LSE Principal Patrick Hunter-Pirtle wrote in support of Williams' nomination for the award. "Students enjoy working with Ellen because she is a very good listener and she works hard at helping students be successful."

Williams earned bachelor's degrees in sociology and education (1971) and a master's degree in educational psychology and measurements (1975) at UNL. She previously taught eighth-grade American history at Fremont Junior High School and seventh- and eighth-grade history at Lincoln East Junior-Senior High School, served as guidance counselor at Lincoln Southeast and supervised social studies student teachers for UNL. She was named the Jaycees Outstanding Educator of the Year for the city of Lincoln and was runner-up for the statewide award.

The award is made possible by a University of Nebraska Foundation fund established in 1986 by Joan and Charles W. Battey of Shawnee Mission, Kan., and Marian (Battey) and Harold W. Andersen of Omaha to commemorate the life and career of their mother and mother-in-law, Freda Drath Battey, a 1923 University of Nebraska graduate who taught school in Ashland.

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