The Arizona Education Foundation (AEF) has announced Emmett Burnton of Deer Valley Unified School District’s Boulder Creek High School as the 2025 Arizona Teacher of the Year. Burnton is now Arizona’s official nominee for National Teacher of the Year.
He is in his ninth year teaching dual enrollment AP World History and U.S. History at Boulder Creek High School in Anthem. Burnton earned a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education History from Northern Arizona University and a Master of Arts in History from Arizona State University.
Burnton is the founder of Duel of Fate, a local business founded on redefining the way students study the world history curriculum. At Boulder Creek, Burnton sponsored the Anime Club, Culture Club, was the co-level leader for the Advanced Placement History Professional Learning Community, and served as the World History level leader for six years.
In 2017, Burnton was nominated for Deer Valley’s Newcomer of the Year award and in 2024 received the Deer Valley Education Foundation’s Teacher of the Year title. After experiencing suspensions, fights, and being labeled as an academic failure as a student, we are now helping the next generation channel their energy into a positive medium, and students of all backgrounds and levels take responsibility for themselves. We help you learn how.
The Arizona Teacher of the Year Award is the highest state-level recognition for public school educators. The program has been coordinated for the past 41 years by the Arizona Education Foundation (AEF), which serves as the state coordinator for the National Teacher of the Year program.
Mr. Burnton will join other State Teachers of the Year from across the country to receive professional learning and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, including meeting the President of the United States, visiting the Oval Office, and training at Google’s headquarters in California. Astronaut at the International Space Camp.
Mr. Burnton was one of 15 educators honored by AEF this year as part of the Teacher of the Year program. The five quarter-finalists and five semi-finalists will be decided in August, and the five finalists, known as the “AEF Ambassadors for Excellence,” will take the stage at the awards ceremony on October 19th to find out who is the winner. was announced live.
The award ceremony was held at the Madison Center for the Arts in Phoenix. Governor Katie Hobbs and Superintendent Tom Horn addressed an audience of 600 people representing the education and business sectors. Kathy Graham, Executive Vice President of Desert Financial, presented the award. Desert Financial has sponsored the Arizona Teacher of the Year Awards for the past five years in a row.
