“The concept of dedicated service to children, it's in the genes,” says the winner of the 2011 Community Builders Award for Education. Jean Hanson's grandmother and her mother were teachers, and her daughter is a teacher in New Zealand.

Hanson retired in July 2010 after a 40-year career in education. After decades of working in the classroom, and as a special education consultant, a principal and a superintendent, she was named the Rainbow District School Board's first female director of education in 2004. The Rainbow board is the largest in Northern Ontario, with elementary and secondary schools as well as alternative school programs in Sudbury, Espanola, Manitoulin Island and Shining Tree.

Hanson has shared her wealth of expertise as an instructor at Nipissing University, as a member of the Governing Council of the Ontario College of Teachers, and as an instructor for the Principal's Qualification Program and the Supervisory Officer's Qualification Program. She has authored a number of publications which exemplify her personal perspective on public education.

“I am absolutely humbled” about winning a Community Builders Award, she says. “One of the things that came quickly to me when I moved here in 1976 was the tremendous sense of community in Sudbury. I have watched from afar the awards and been awed by the people who have won...I can't help but be humbled.”

Her other honours include being the inaugural recipient of The Leadership in Northern Education Award, which is presented by the Lougheed Teaching and Learning Centre of Excellence at Huntington University. She won the Rainbow District School Board's Award for Excellence (1990-91) and the board's Barbara Konarek Memorial Award (1998-99) for her significant humanitarian contribution to the life of a student or group of students.

Her leadership contributed to the success of The Mission of T.E.A.R.S. concert for Haiti Earthquake Relief, which raised $30,000 to reconstruct a school in Port-au-Prince. A wing of the school was named in her honour.

Tyler Campbell, chair of the Rainbow board, says Hanson "always put students first and foremost." He also notes she inspired her staff to work toward a common goal, while engaging "parents/guardians and the community at large to be active partners in education."

Norm Blaseg, who replaced Hanson as director of education, says, "As an educator with 40 years of dedicated service...she has consistently demonstrated her belief that each and every student can reach his or her full potential.

“When I was a principal, she planted the seed and provided the funds to establish the first Section 23 class for students with autism at my school.”

Teacher Heather Rowell recalls her boss encouraged teachers “to think outside the box...She never accepted the excuse that 'this is how we have always done it.' She challenged us to think differently for the benefit of students.”

Celia Kett remembers being called into Hanson's office at George Vanier Public School in Lively. “I was told by some teachers I was not the ideal student...being sent to the principal's office started my academic career on a completely new path. Mrs. Hanson came into my life at a crucial moment...She made me believe in myself.“

Now a pilot with Porter Airlines, Kett says, ”I know I wasn't the only student who benefited from Mrs. Hanson's guidance and support.“

When she got her pilot's licence, Kett took her former principal on a ride high in the skies over Sudbury.

In the first six months of her retirement, Hanson cleaned out boxes of stuff in her basement that she had collected over her career. She finally threw away her notes from teacher's college.

“It was difficult but I parted with them,” she says.

She is learning to love retirement and the freedom to do what she wants, when she wants. She has recently returned from an extended visit to New Zealand.

“I'm very much still in transition,” she says. “I am certainly interested in how I can contribute my skills to continue to make a difference to children and their families... because you don't just stop (when you retire).”