RESTON, Va., Aug. 10, 2020 — NCRA, the country’s leading organization representing stenographic court reporters, captioners, and legal videographers, announced today that Melissa Lee, CRI, from Prattville, Ala., a court reporting instructor at the College of Court Reporting (CCR) in Valparaiso, Ind., was named 2020 Educator of the Year. The announcement was made at NCRA’s Connect Virtual 20202 Conference & Expo held Aug. 7-9.
NCRA’s CASE (Council on Approved Student Education) Award of Excellence recognizes the important role student education plays in the court reporting profession, and honors educators for their dedication and outstanding achievement and leadership. Recipients are nominated by an NCRA member.
“It is a true honor to have been nominated for, let alone having won, the CASE Educator of the Year award,” Lee added. “It means that my hard work is making a difference in the lives of my students. I wish that every instructor who is working hard to inspire their students could get this award as well because it keeps you motivated, even more than you already are. We have some amazing educators in the court reporting community, and I am certainly blessed to work among many of them at the College of Court Reporting.”
Lee is a 1998 graduate of the Princeton Institute, in Montgomery, Ala., and began her court reporting career in 1998 as a Communication Access Realtime (CART) provider, followed by becoming a freelance judicial court reporter. She has taught at CCR for 10 years.
Among her accomplishments, Lee contributed to the “On the Road to Realtime” seminar for the Stenograph company; served as a co-presenter of the “Excellence in Teaching” seminar at the 2014 NCRA convention; wrote several articles published in the JCR; participated in the “Court Reporting - The Best Kept Secret” national advertisement; and through a U.S. Federal Grant, has traveled the country to assist in a “Training for Realtime Writers Program,” helping to transition realtime writers to closed-captioning providers.
“Court reporting is one of the very few fields where you can continue to renegotiate the terms of your employment throughout your career,” Lee said.
“My biggest reward by far is seeing my students graduate and go on to careers that they love!
I sincerely appreciate that I am able to give back to a profession that has given so much to me. I see the future of what our reporting profession has to look forward to in every student I work with, and I can tell you that our future stands bright. I am excited that I can play a small role in not only educating students about the flexibility and opportunities that the reporting field has to offer; but also, at the same time, helping to ensure that this wonderful profession continues to thrive.”
Lee, who said she learned about the court reporting profession from a relative, sums up her career choice with a quote from the American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer Mark Twain: “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”