Regional Teacher of the Year Susan Kelsey-Brewton’s journey to becoming the top teacher in Detroit

For Susan Kelsey-Brewton, a middle school science teacher at Hope Academy of Detroit, the road to becoming the top teacher in Detroit began in a very different direction.

“When I went to college, I started off in science and I wanted to be a dentist,” she said. “I started at a liberal arts school in Indiana and then transferred back home to Wayne State. That’s when I realized that I really wanted to be a teacher. I just love working with kids.”

And it turns out, she’s pretty darn good at it. When the Michigan Department of Education announced the winners of the 2025 Regional Teacher of the Year awards, Susan learned that she was the winner in Region 10, which covers the entire City of Detroit.

So in the eyes of the state, that made her the top teacher in Detroit. For a lifelong Detroiter like Susan, the honor was almost too much to comprehend.

“I was just honored and just flabbergasted and excited and scared and just a mix of emotions when I found out about the Teacher of the Year honor,” she said. “I’ve always considered myself as a good teacher, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be chosen.”

She’s now one of 10 finalists to be the 2025 Michigan Teacher of the Year. The winner will be announced later this spring.

Susan grew up in the city and graduated from Cass Technical High School before heading off to college. When she graduated from Wayne State with a major in science and a minor in English, she began her teaching career as a Head Start preschool teacher. After 10 years of doing that, she headed to the charter school world – and she’s never left.

“I’ve taught in charter schools my entire career,” she said. “We have generally smaller class sizes and a better student-teacher ratio, which I like. We have families that kind of follow us. We have generations of families that stay at the school, and we develop these relationships with our students, and I think that's the key to being a good teacher – developing a relationship.”

Susan began her career teaching elementary school at an African-centered charter school in Detroit called Aisha Shule/WEB DuBois Preparatory Academy. After several years there, she found her way to Hope Academy of Detroit.

“I had been kind of going back and forth between teaching elementary school and middle school, and when I came to Hope, they asked me to teach middle school science,” she said. “And you know, I never thought I would like middle school. It takes a special person to be a middle school teacher. I learned that this was my niche and I love teaching middle school and I don't think I could go back and do elementary school now. I just like how I can interact with them. It's on a different level. And I can kind of talk to them and be for real with them. I like that. They're more mature and we can have these almost adult-like conversations. Because sometimes we need to.”

Susan not only found her niche as a middle school science teacher at Hope Academy of Detroit – she began to thrive. Under her leadership, the school has forged several science-based community partnerships that have opened up a variety of doors for her students.

With the help of Eastern Michigan University, she teamed up with former baseball star Reggie Jackson’s Mr. October Foundation, which focuses on improving STEM education and workforce pipeline for underserved youth. The foundation’s goal is to inform and inspire kids in the areas of engineering, technology, manufacturing, medical and the trades while focusing on skill development and employability.

“That was during the pandemic and Reggie Jackson actually came to our school,” Susan said. “Everyone was masked up and outside, but it was so cool for the kids to have Reggie Jackson here.”

That program has been going strong ever since, with the Mr. October Foundation providing STEM boxes for every student, filled with supplies and science units.

“It’s hard to get kids in the inner city into STEM education sometimes, but this program does an excellent job of getting them interested,” Susan said.

 As part of another program, Susan teamed up with the University of Michigan-Dearborn for a drone program. “They sponsored a program for us and they brought out a bunch of drones to the school. The kids learned all about them and even got to fly the drones,” she said.

As Susan says, it’s the relationships that make her job special. And nothing makes her smile more than seeing one of her graduates go on to pursue STEM as a career.

“I have a former student named Glen who is at the University of Michigan now, studying to be an engineer,” she said. “And it all started because he got interested in it here.”