PULLMAN, Wash.–Katherine Herrick, a prevention and health specialist for the Beaverton (Ore.) School District since 2000, received Washington State University’s Alumni Achievement Award at the Feb. 10 meeting of the school district board. Teaching colleagues describe her as “a total professional, who cares deeply about her students.”
After graduating from WSU in 1974 with a degree in education and a minor in child and family studies, Herrick obtained a master’s degree in teaching at Lewis and Clark College. She began teaching middle school English, reading and communications in Vancouver. While teaching English and reading at Kent-Meridian High School in Kent (1979-1987), she also coordinated the Substance Abuse Program.
Prior to her current position, Herrick was a counselor/student assistance facilitator in two middle schools and a high school in the Beaverton district for 13 years. Dedicated to becoming a better counselor, she completed a certificate in Alcohol/Drug Studies at Seattle University (1986) and a counseling license at the University of Portland (1993).
Carol Steele, a counselor at Portland’s Sunset High School, calls Herrrick “a superb counselor,” who doesn’t want her students to go lacking. “She cares about students emotional health, physical health, social lives, and future plans after high school.”
Herrick has intervened to assist a number of students, who had drug/alcohol problems, get treatment. Every week for five years she volunteered her time to run a recovery group to help students stay clean and sober. According to Steele, many of those students credit Herrick for “profoundly positively changes” in their lives.
