Submitted by Centralia College Foundation
The Centralia College Foundation has selected Ann Grande Moody and Jeff McQuarrie to receive the 2025 Exceptional Faculty Awards. They were chosen for their commitment to and excellence in their subject areas and participation in campus activities.
Both will be formally honored at the college’s commencement ceremony on June 18.
Ann Grande Moody
An Olympia native, Ann Grande Moody began teaching third and fourth graders in 1993 in Sweden at an international school for three years. It was an experience that dramatically changed her life.
“I had just earned my dual degree in both elementary and secondary teaching with a minor in English Literature,” she recalled. “Those three years of teaching non-English speaking children from all over the world was my life’s greatest education and still inspires a love of diverse cultures to this day. I continue to stay in touch with many of them these 30 years later!”
When she returned to Olympia, she earned her master’s degree and taught in the North Thurston School District for about a decade before serving as a teaching and learning facilitator for the Centralia School District.
In 2017, when Centralia College launched its new bachelor’s degree in Teacher Education, she was initially hired to teach part-time. She loved it and, within a year, was serving as the program director. She is back to teaching bachelor’s degree students full time, however, and says teaching is where her heart is.
“My passion for teaching was born from the impact of my former teachers, who drastically impacted the trajectory of my life,” she said. “It’s an incredible honor to be able to pass along gifts that were given to me. Hearing from our BAS-TE graduates about the impact they are having as teachers is my favorite part of being a professor in the program.”
Jeff McQuarrie
Jeff McQuarrie spent much of his early career in business. He was the president and marketing director of a fishing resort in Alaska and had his own video production company. But, he wanted more.
“Although both jobs were fun, I didn’t feel I was really making the world a better place,” he said. “I think we all have a deep craving to change people’s lives for the better, and teaching does that. I still keep in touch with students from the first class I taught here in 2011. I’ve lived all over the country, but Lewis County people are special.”
McQuarrie started teaching communications part-time, first at Centralia College East and then at both campuses. He now teaches nearly all of the communications studies courses available at Centralia College, including public speaking, intro to mass media, and debate. His favorite class is advanced public speaking.
“That class attracts some gifted characters, who really know how to make learning fun,” he said. “Most days, when I leave that class, my jaw hurts from laughing so much. It’s so cool to have a new student who is frightened to death on the first day of an introductory public speaking course, who then goes on to take the advanced course. Guiding them from ‘frightened to fanatic’ about public speaking is one of the biggest joys I’ve ever felt.”
McQuarrie is also the director of the annual Statewide Inspirational Speech Championship, featuring the top five public speakers from the state’s 34 career and technical colleges in July. Centralia students have been state champions three of the last four years.
This is McQuarrie’s second time receiving the Exceptional Faculty Award. He previously won it in 2017.
