Jeri Powers, a reading specialist at Riverview Elementary School in De Soto, was named the 2008 Kansas Teacher of the Year during ceremonies in Wichita on Saturday night. Kansas Education Commissioner Alexa Posny made the announcement before a gathering of 450 education officials, corporate leaders and state policy-makers.

Powers has been a reading specialist at Riverview Elementary since 1999. In 2002, she co-authored and received a matching grant to begin an early literacy intervention program at the school, which was implemented and used across the school district.

She will receive several prizes, including a $4,000 cash award from Security Benefit, a major sponsor of the Kansas Teacher of the Year program and a Lifelong Learning Scholarship from the Kansas Board of Regents and several other state universities.