Mike Troester Outstanding LSE Educator Award

About the Award: The Mike Troester Outstanding Educator Award is a means of recognizing outstanding educators at Southeast High School. The award was created through the joint efforts of Junior Achievement, the Lincoln Southeast Student Council, and PTSO in memory of Mike Troester, former Economics teacher at Southeast.

Amount Awarded: $450

Nomination By: Chris Salem

Dave Leader is an absolute pillar of the Southeast High School. He has been a visible leader within its classrooms, athletic fields and surrounding community for 3 decades. It is near impossible to think of an educator that has had such a positive impact on so many students and athletes as Dave Leader since he first came to the Black and Gold in 1993. 

He has coached at the highest level, including being a part of multiple state championship coaching staffs during his tenure coaching the football and track and field athletic teams. He has taught a dozen different preps over his years at LSE and is probably best known in the classroom as our resident Economics and AP Macroeconomics teacher. Dave has helped hundreds of students gain college credit through his AP Macro course and there is probably no better Macro instructor in the district. 

Dave builds incredible relationships with ALL students. He has a great sense of humor and has a knack for finding what motivates his students on an individual level. 

While he may be known as a coach, his ability as a teacher is what has impressed me. I had the chance to work side-by-side with Dave over the last 15 years in our district Economics PLC and when it came to an idea of a small group setting aside our own time, for zero extra pay to write a full Economics textbook for the district, Dave did most of the heavy lifting in the very difficult writing process.  The E-book is now used in every Economics high school classroom in the district. He truly wants to do what is best for students all the time without hesitation. 

He has been nothing but the best representative of LSE culture during his 30 years as a Knight teacher and coach and I believe that he is more deserving of this award than any.