2023 Distinguished Alumni Award

Leigh Hiester is the principal at Foster 
Elementary/Foster Dual Language campus in Jeffco, Colorado where she has overseen daily activities for the last 20 years. She is admired in her field because of game-changing work in dual-language instruction such as creating a pre-K through 8th grade Option School for Dual Language Students, emphasizing technology in the classroom, securing millions in grant dollars, and holding the first Dual Language Conference for the State 
of Colorado. 

Prior to her work at Foster, Leigh spent 10 years as a dual language teacher in the classroom, in Texas and Colorado. 
She has earned the Jeffco Leadership Award in 2017 and 2022, the 2021 President’s Award from the Colorado Association of Bilingual Education, the Bill Johnson Champion of Youth Award from the Arvada Wheat Ridge Service Ambassadors for Youth in 2015, and 
the 2023 “Badass Woman of Arvada” by the Arvada Chamber of Commerce.