Laurel Wicke

Laurel Wicke, a 15 year veteran educator, currently teaches yearbook and theatre at Drake Middle School in Arvada, CO. Since taking over the yearbook in 2018, the Lair has won many state and national awards. It has been rated an All-Colorado Yearbook five years running, became a Pacemaker Finalist in 2021, 2022, and 2023 and received a CSPA Silver Crown and an NSPA Pacemaker Award in 2022. In 2021 JEA named Wicke as a Rising Star, and this year the Colorado Student Media Association honored her by naming her the Colorado Advisor of the Year. However, Wicke is most proud to mentor wonderfully hardworking staff members including the 2021, 2022, and 2023 CSMA Middle School Journalists of the Year. She is passionate about chasing excellence with great joy, and her work is regularly fueled by her students’ generous gifts of Diet Coke, Cheese-Its and Twin Snakes for which she is forever grateful.