Dr. Gall Receives Educator of a Lifetime Award from Bay District Schools

PANAMA CITY, FL -  Dr. Stefanie Swindle Gall, President of Kiwanis Club in Panama City, Florida, was recognized on November 13, 2024, by Bay District Schools (BDS) Superintendent, Mark McQueen, with the Educator of a Lifetime Award. This is Bay District Schools’ highest honor.  She has received many honors including being placed into the Junior Achievement of Northwest Florida Business Hall of Fame and is a member of Impact 100 Gulf Coast.

Gall retired from BDS in 2010 after 45 years as an instructor with the last 13 years as principal of the Oakland Terrance School for the Visual and Performing Arts. Under her direction, the school moved from being a “D” school to an “A” school.  She also served as Superintendent and as Supervisor of Early Childhood.  Gall joined Florida State University (FSU) in 1970 as an Adjunct Professor and Visiting Clinical Professor.  

Gall went to Stillwater High School in Oklahoma, earned a BSE.Ed at Oklahoma State University then went on to earn an MS in Counseling Psychology and a Ph.D in Education at FSU.  Her dissertation was published in 1973 entitled, “An Investigation of Growth in Critical Reading Ability in Grades Four, Five and Six.”

She has been happily married to Dan Gall for over 50 years and one of her endorphin producers is her 5.5-pound doggy, Grace.  Stef and Dan love to travel the world with recent visits to Paris, France, and Atruli, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Croatia and Italy, among others.

Gall, as well as the other 438,000 Kiwanis members worldwide, is “dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time.”  The club is moving forward with a redesign project to install new playground equipment at McKenzie Park.  She invites you to join Kiwanis Club for lunch at 11:30 am on most Wednesdays at the Trigo Event Center, 131 Harrison Avenue, Panama City, FL.