Miami-Dade Public Schools names 2025 Teacher of the Year

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The 2025 Francisco R. Walker Miami-Dade County Teacher of the Year has been chosen.

Melissa Abril-Dotel, a second-grade teacher at North Beach Elementary School, was honored during a ceremony at the DoubleTree by Hilton Miami Airport & Convention Center on Tuesday night.

Abril-Dotel said she comes from a family of educators and has wanted to be a teacher since she was a child. She began teaching in 2008 at Coral Way K-8 Center and shortly afterwards transferred to Christina M. Eve Elementary where she taught third grade for seven years.

Abril-Dotel has been teaching at North Beach since 2015. She said she believes education is more than memorizing rules and facts and prefers to ensure her students fully understand and find meaning in her lessons.

William Torres from Robert Morgan Ed. Center & Tech College was the runner up.

The finalists for this year’s award were Nicolas Acosta, from Miami Springs Senior High School and Alina Hughes Robinson from Robert Morgan Educational Center.

Kendall Toyota will gift the winner a new car.

The district also recognized the 2024­ Rookie Teacher of the Year, Juan Gabriel Martin a music teacher at Citrus Grove K-8 Center.

Martin is active in the community and co-founded Compositum Musicae Novae, which produces, performs and introduces the public to emerging musicians, dancers, writers and visual artists.

Diaunte Jenkins, a dance instructor at Norland Middle School, is the runner-up.

The finalists for the 2024­ Rookie Teacher of the Year Denzel Williams from Arthur and Polly Mays Conservatory of the Arts and Victor Ramos from South Dade Technical College.