Supporting the Preparation of Top Quality Teachers 

Kim (Patterson) Stanfield (M.T. ’95, Elem Ed) and her husband Troy give to the Curry School’s annual fund because they want to support the preparation of top quality teachers.

It was inevitable that Kim would enter the teaching profession. Her mother started as an elementary teacher and eventually became a professor of teacher education. Several aunts and one uncle have been educators. Her father became a teacher after retiring from the Air Force, and her sister teaches as well. She jokes that teaching is the family business.

Kim earned her bachelor’s degree from the McIntire School of Commerce in 1993. From there she enrolled in the Curry School “because of its reputation and because of my love for the University,” she says. Once in the postgraduate master’s of teaching program, Kim realized she had found her niche.

She and Troy moved to the Boston area after graduation, where Troy works for a private equity firm. Kim says she felt “extremely well prepared” to teach in a highly regarded suburban school near their home.

After teaching for two years, she left the classroom to become a stay-at-home mom. The couple’s three children, Gabrielle, 11, Michaela, 7, Isaiah, 5, keep her plenty busy and also have provided another perspective on the significance of good teachers.

“Now that we are parents,” Kim says, “we are consumers of elementary education. We feel very strongly about the importance of preparing excellent teachers and continuing to train professional educators. We give because we want to support the University in that endeavor.”