by Ralph Rodriguez (Red Hat)

During Labor Day Week, Red Hat Training North America held its annual Instructor and Partner Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. As is our tradition, on the final evening, we held our awards banquet, recognizing the instructors that have made the biggest impact over the course of the last year.

It is with pleasure that I reveal the instructor awards given that night:

Special Award for Training Advocacy
Rhett Williams

Rhett teaches in Southern California, a significant growth region for Red Hat Training. That growth is a result, in part, of his advocacy of Red Hat Training among his students. Without being a "salesman", he talks to students about Red Hat's training programs, training tracks, and other courses that will help them, resulting in an extremely satisfied, customer base.

Virtual Training (VT) Instructor of the Year
Michael Phillips

No instructor was surprised to hear that Michael won this award: Michael often teaches VT classes and has shown amazing success getting his students to participate during VT classes, a real accomplishment. He has written documents on how to teach VT and been a leading advocate of the platform and a leader in helping to improve the student experience in VT.

Upper Level Instructor of the Year
Phil Sweany

Phil has successfully taught nearly a quarter of all upper level Linux administration classes in the past year. His students consistently praise his teaching abilities. He is the single most prolific contributor to the Linux instructor list, assisting fellow instructors from his experiences, and usually doing it with humor. More recently, has has worked with the Curriculum Team to improve the upper level experience, including contributing substantially to the most recent release of the Red Hat Clustering and Storage Management course.

JBoss Instructor of the Year
Eash Peri

This is Eash's second consecutive year winning this award. Eash is Red Hat's longest-tenured JBoss instructor. Not only does he teach the basic JBoss courses with excellence, but he is a leader in expanding Red Hat's ability to expand our teaching capabilities into more upper level JBoss courses.

Red Hat Training Lifetime Achievement Award
Susan Lauber

Susan is Red Hat's longest tenured instructor. She was the second Red Hat Certified Architect in North America. Over the years, she has contributed to the curriculum, tested labs, tested certification exams, and indeed probably been involved in every aspect of the training content and delivery business. She teaches a broad range of courses and continues to expand her repetoire, most recently extending into the new emerging technologies on the Linux side. She has shown a decade long commitment to the Red Hat Training program and her contributions are much appreciated by all members of the Training team.

Director's Award for Training Leadership
Charles Greaves

Charles has taught more JBoss classes in the past year than any other instructor. In mailing lists, he has been establishing himself as a leader within the JBoss instructor community. More recently, he has become the go-to guy for ever important JBoss scoping calls, ensuring that the Red Hat and the customer are fully aligned to give the customer the knowledge transfer that they need.

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