Top of the class: Deming's Ruben S. Torres Elementary School teacher Magali Gomez named a 2023 Milken Educator

Each day, Magali Gomez is a champion for the students at Ruben S. Torres Elementary School in Deming.

On Wednesday, Gomez was awarded with the 2023 Milken Educator Award at an assembly at the school.

Honoring Gomez was Jane Foley, Milken Educator Awards senior vice president, New Mexico Lieutenant Governor Howie Morales and Arsenio Romero, New Mexico secretary of public education.

The Award comes with a $25,000 cash prize that recipients can use however they choose, as well as lifelong membership to the Milken Educator Network to collaborate with fellow recipients and broaden their impact on K-12 education.

"Magali Gomez truly embodies the spirit of the Milken Educator Award. She is a teacher leader, an innovator in the classroom, and an inspirational role model who achieves great gains with her students," said Foley, a 1994 Milken Educator Award recipient from Indiana. "Her passion for cultivating tangible learning experiences in her classroom motivates her young students to envision a future for themselves as exemplary leaders in their community, just like their teacher. We offer our heartfelt congratulations to her."

The awards honor up to 75 recipients across the country in 2023-24 as part of the Milken Family Foundation’s Journey to the 3,000th Milken Educator.

Magali Gomez awarded Milken Educator Award

According to Milken, Gomez has established herself as a steadfast teacher/leader and inspiring mentor who works every day to support her colleagues and achieve notable academic and personal growth for her students.

“From the first day of school, Gomez sets her classroom expectations high, and her students regularly rise to meet the challenge,” the organization said in a statement.

Gomez is recognized for her innovative curriculum in the classroom, where she embraces methodologies such as empowering students to use data-trackers to chart their own growth as they learn new sight words; incorporating color-coded strategies for teaching math, an approach that yields greater understanding for her students; teaching communications skills through a hands-on journalism project that encourages students to use data-driven journalism techniques to inform their writing; and weaving project-based learning (PBL) throughout her curriculum to foster student cooperation and spark creativity.

She also looks for ways to inspire students to see a future career for themselves by inviting local newspaper journalists to the school for a Black History Month project and outdoor art installation, as well as hosting the Public Service Company of New Mexico to speak to her students when she taught about electricity.

Beyond the classroom, Gomez serves as a court-appointed advocate for foster children, an honorary board member of children's museum Playsharity, and an adjunct professor in social work at Western New Mexico University.

"I am thrilled for Magali Gomez, the Ruben S. Torres Elementary students and staff, and the Deming community that she is being recognized for her incredible work in the classroom," said Romero. "Her ability to adapt the latest evidence-based teaching models to relatable lessons for her students has produced tremendous academic achievement growth in reading, math, and language. Combined with her leadership in her school and willingness to go the extra mile for her students makes her exactly the kind of educator New Mexico students deserve."