Sarah Brown Wessling is friend, mentor, coordinator and calming presence for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), where she serves as the National Teacher of the Year program’s Senior Advisor. This means that she gets to travel the country, meet amazing teachers (and me), support those of us entrusted with the Teacher of the Year role, and amplify and elevate the teaching profession. A National Teacher of the Year herself (2010), she brings wisdom, insight, and above all, a love of teachers to a national stage. In a time when teaching is hard…it is HARD, people…Sarah disrupts the struggle with peace and honesty.

Plus a very calming and spiritual top five.