Taylor, Barbara: - A grandfather who relished talking about (and burying) his silver coin collection-taught Barbara Taylor how to spot a great story. More than a decade as a newspaper reporter in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Colorado honed her love of true tales. Students in her high school history classroom at Pomona High School, taught Barbara daily what matters to our country's collective memory. A new adventure with 6th- and 7th-graders at Evergreen Middle School drew her to the tall order of finding the essential excitement and elegance of the Colorado Statehood story. Barbara was named the Colorado History Teacher of the Year in 2020 by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute on the heels of winning the James Madison Memorial Fellowship in American History in 2019. Her work with the American Exchange Project, which gathers students from throughout the United States for a free week in hometowns across America, has given her tangible hope that young people-even when they disagree about important issues-are capable stewards of democracy. Barbara has raised two lawyers, Carter & Glenna, and embraced attorney daughter-in-law Carol, all of whom work to represent those who don't have loud enough voices to speak for themselves. Barbara is an enormous fan of her granddaughter, Lily.