October 12, 2013 –
MAYETTA: Anita Evans was named one of Emporia State University’s Distinguished Alumni for 2013 and was honored last weekend during the university’s homecoming festivities in Emporia, Kan.
She was inducted along with Linda Bluth, J.D. Schramm and Tom Thornburgh last Friday night at the annual alumni banquet.
Evans graduated from Emporia State in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and taught for 27 years before her retirement in 2013. Seventeen of those years were spent in the Royal Valley School District where she is still active in the district’s Title VII Indian Education program. Evans also works with youth at the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Boys & Girls Club.
Other honors she has received include being named the National Indian Educator of the Year in 2002 by the National Indian Education Association and in 1997 she was selected as the Native American Educator of the Year by the Kansas Association for Native American Education in 1997. Her high school in Port Jervis (N.Y.) also inducted her into their High School Hall of Fame in 2010.