A Raleigh County high school teacher who serves on the West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism Visiting Committee has been awarded the Milken National Educator Award, the state Department of Education recently announced.

Vaughn G. Rhudy, an English and journalism teacher at Shady Spring High School, was one of two state teachers to receive the award. He will receive $25,000 from the Milken Family Foundation and can spend the money however he chooses.

Rhudy was among 100 teachers who received the annual award; 47 states participated this year.

Milken Family Foundation Chairman and co-founder Lowell Milken created the award in 1985 to recognize the nation’s outstanding teachers.

The P.I. Reed School of Journalism Visiting Committee advises faculty and offers assessment and feedback on teaching and curriculum.

“Vaugh Rhudy connects the School of Journalism with the future of journalismall the fine young journalists and mass communicators of the future. His excellent work assures us of a vibrant new mass media profession,” SOJ Dean Christine Martin said.

Under Rhudy’s guidance, journalism students at Shady Spring High School have amassed numerous state and national awards.

In 1991, Rhudy was inducted into the West Virginia Journalism Teachers’Hall of Fame at WVU . He was the 1992-93 Raleigh County Teacher of the Year and a 1994 Ashland Oil West Virginia Teacher Achievement Award Winner.

Before entering the teaching profession, Rhudy worked as a reporter, editor and entertainment critic at The Register-Herald newspaper in Beckley, where he won numerous West Virginia Press Association awards. He also received a national honorable mention award from the American Planning Association for his coverage of the City of Beckley’s Renaissance urban renewal program.

In 1983, Rhudy worked as a reporting intern at The Dallas Morning News where he covered a variety of assignments. He won a national first place award for Spot News Reporting in the Society of Professional Journalists’Mark of Excellence Contest for his coverage of a tragic murder-suicide at a Texas hospital.

Rhudy earned a bachelors in English and journalism education, a masters in journalism and a masters in leadership studies from Marshall University. Currently, he is pursuing a doctorate in educational administration at WVU .