Joey Running, an Oregon teacher and a 1987 graduate of Cassadaga Valley Central School, was recently recognized 2024 National Business High School Educator of the Year.

Joey Running, a business educator at West Albany High School, Albany, Ore., was recognized as the 2024 National Business High School Educator of the Year.

In addition to her role as a secondary business instructor, Running extends her teaching expertise to the community college level. Running is a 1987 high school graduate from Cassadaga Valley High School. She attended Jamestown Business College and St. Bonaventure University, graduating with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration and Master’s of Science Secondary Education degrees, and most recently, a degree in Economics and Entrepreneurship from the University of Delaware, recognized with the Harry Hutchinson Award . While in New York, she taught business education at Cassadaga Valley, under the tutelage of Jean C. VanNess (Randolph), and Frewsburg High Schools supporting students in local competitions concentrating on workplace readiness and hands-on skills learned in classes. After relocating to Oregon, she continued to teach business education at Central Linn High School and Linn-Benton Community College with students competing at the regional, state, and national levels in their Future Business Leaders of America chapter.

Her tenure at West Albany High School spans nearly two decades with an emphasis on the importance of supporting other educators teaching personal finance with current, engaging, up-to-date resources. This involvement has led to advocating with her students for a personal finance course/higher education and career path skills semester courses as graduation requirements for Oregon students. She has been actively involved in the Oregon Business Education Association, Western Business Education Association, National Business Education Association (with the support of Mary Ann Lammers, Corvallis) and the Oregon Council on Economic Education, receiving Educator of the Year awards from each of these organizations.

Running has served as a 2019 Educator Ambassador for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and has been a Next Gen Personal Finance Fellow since 2017. She has been featured in teacher spotlights for organizations such as NEFE HSFPP, Take Charge Today, Practical Money Skills, and was the first scholarship recipient of the Ted Beck Effective Educator Award.

Most recently, Running was recognized by the Oregon State Treasury with this year’s Oregon Financial Empowerment award. This summer she will be serving as a visiting professor of graduate studies at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts offering graduate education credits to personal finance teachers in a partnership with Next Gen Personal Finance.

When not in the classroom, Running is busy with her family in Brownsville, her husband Mark; college-aged children attending Oregon Institute of Technology, Colton and Tegan, and stepdaughters, Sydney and Rory.