The Milken Family Foundation National Educator Awards program provides public recognition and financial rewards to teachers, principals, and other education professionals who are furthering excellence in education. The goals of the program are:

• to celebrate and reward educators making a sustained, creative and substantive contribution to the education of elementary and secondary school children
• to foster the active professional development and career enhancement of Milken Educators and other professionals
• to encourage Milken Educators to help shape educational policies that influence their classrooms and schools
• to elevate the teaching profession by increasing public recognition of and support for outstanding educators and successful school programs
• to encourage talented men and women to enter the field of education

Awards are presented to elementary (grades K-6) educators and secondary (grades 7-12) educators in alternate years.

Each Milken Educator Award carries with it an unrestricted award of $25,000.

Milken Educator Awards are announced in the fall and celebrated at banquets hosted by the foundation in each state. These celebrations are attended by the honorees' families, local school administrators, community leaders, the state's chief of education and frequently its governor. These events are an important part of the program since a major goal is to honor educators publicly.

The 2005 Recipients of the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award

• Al Balasco
• Susan Toohey-Kaye
• Katherine Sharkey
• Charles Myers, Jr.
• Mary Ann Guerin
• Stephanie Blackburn
• Susan Caputo
• Crandall W. Dimock
• Denise E. Frederick
• Rickard Gannon
• Geri McCarthy
• Cheryl Fisher-Allen
  -Deceased-
• David Neves
• Leslie A. Bettencourt
• David Capaldi
• Judith Sweeney
• Leland W. Brown
• Dr. Howard D. Boyaj
• Rosemarie Kraeger
• Donna Della Porta
• Dr. Ann O'Grady
• Ralph Marston Perry
• Mary Kay Schnare
• Robert Miller
• Linda Bello
• Norma Garnett
• Crandall Dimock
• Jeanne Dawson
• Paul Mello
• Judith Leonard
• Dr. Jorge Alvarez
• Joyce Stevos
• Sandra Lamb
• Anne-Marie Kachanis
• Kristine Whitford Bell
• Joseph J. Pasonelli
• Linda Jean Filomeno
• Hubert Hersey
• Virginia Kircanski
• James Brown, Ph.D.
• Michael Barnes, Ph.D
• Mary Louise Harrison
• Robert Smith
• Robert Wallace
• Darlene Walsh
• Eric Wertheimer
• Patricia Jarvis
• Dr. Frederick P. Pasquariello
• Carole M. Harman
• Henry A. DeVona
• Margaret Swann
• Joseph Militello, Principal
• Carol B. Glanville
• Edmund Lemoi
• Mary Holland Canole
• Barry Ricci
• Kathleen W. Bowen
• Rickard Gannon, Ed. D.
• Barbara Ashby
  
• Mariann Hayward
  
• Peter McLaren
  
• Judy Rowe
• Ulysses S. Gallman, III