Dr. Rachael Mahmood finishes her term as Illinois Teacher of the Year

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May 5, 2025/

BY VALERIE HARDY

Dr. Rachael Mahmood grew up in Downers Grove with parents who were both physicians at Good Samaritan Hospital. “Being the child of two doctors, I felt like I had no choice but to become a doctor,” she said.

In fact, back when Mahmood was a teenager, her father told her he would buy her a car if she became a doctor, but if she became a teacher, he would buy her a bicycle. Mahmood understood the roots of her father’s offer: “he had come to America to live the American Dream and wanted his kids to follow in his footsteps,” she explained.

However, Mahmood followed her heart instead and attended Benedictine University to study education. One of her professors noticed her interest in multicultural education and invited her to attend meetings in Indian Prairie District 204 – the professor’s children’s school district – that focused on increasing inclusivity in its schools. “I went to these meetings with her for my entire senior year because I was interested in all the educators, principals, and parents working together to make their schools more inclusive,” Mahmood said.

Mahmood’s first teaching position was at Brookdale Elementary School in Naperville, where she was eager to carry District 204’s value of inclusivity into her classroom to ensure all her students felt a sense of belonging.

“I didn’t really have that experience in school,” Mahmood explained. “I loved all my teachers and loved school, but my mom is Russian-Jewish, and my dad is Indian-Hindu, and I just never felt a place of belonging as a student.”

She added that there were “a lot of micro-messages being sent through the curriculum and through the school calendar…whispering to me that my identity was not normal.”

Mahmood is committed to using her position as an educator to prevent other students from feeling a similar invalidation of their unique identities. Despite not always feeling like she has the power as an individual to increase inclusivity and belongingness in schools, over the course of her 20 years as an educator, Mahmood has continually tried to do so.

After spending the first half of her career at Brookdale, she transferred to District 204’s Georgetown Elementary School, which has a racially and socioeconomically diverse student population. Always a fourth or fifth-grade teacher as her primary position, Mahmood seeks out opportunities to “close the academic achievement gap” wherever she can, both in and beyond her own classroom. She was vice chair of her school district’s parent diversity council, served as an equity ambassador, and designed professional development about culturally responsive instructional practices for District 204.

“Take care of our teachers, because they take care of the greatest resource in our community: our children.”

– DR. RACHAEL MAHMOOD, ILLINOIS TEACHER OF THE YEAR

Mahmood advocates for numerous populations historically marginalized in schools. She did her doctoral dissertation on low-income and African American parent engagement. She worked on the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act and is on the Muslim Civic Coalition, which writes laws to support religious minorities in Illinois. Mahmood has also written numerous articles, started a podcast about it, and is currently writing a book related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools.

Based on her passion for inclusion and commitment to fostering belonging in schools, last May, Mahmood learned she was selected as the 2024 Illinois Teacher of the Year. Dr. Steven Isoye, Chair of the Illinois State Board of Education, surprised Mahmood at her school to share the exciting news, which she said was special because he was the first Asian male Illinois Teacher of the Year, and she became the first Asian female to receive the title.

As Teacher of the Year, she has been on a one-year sabbatical from her teaching position to have time to advocate for inclusivity in schools and for the teaching profession in general.

She has traveled throughout the state 3-5 days per week, hosting World Cafés, which are dialogues with community stakeholders about increasing belonging in their local schools. As Teacher of the Year, Mahmood has visited her alma mater, Downers Grove North High School, multiple times to speak with teachers and students, including future educators within DGN’s Introduction to Teaching class.

During Mahmood’s speaking engagements, she shares the importance of understanding each other’s stories, of teachers having a “strong why story” behind choosing a career in education, and about teachers being intentional about remembering that “why.”

She also emphasizes how essential it is to “take care of our teachers, because they take care of the greatest resource in our community: our children.”

Although Mahmood’s Illinois Teacher of the Year term ends on July 1, she will continue to represent Illinois as part of the cohort for National Teacher of the Year. In this capacity, Mahmood has already visited Google’s headquarters and has upcoming visits to Space Camp, the White House, and the college football championship, for which, she said, the theme is “Teachers go the extra yard.”