Leslie Saucier, principal of West Running Brook Middle School, was selected as one of 20 New Hampshire’s Outstanding Women and presented with her award at the WZID Women’s Expo earlier this month.
“I am truly honored to have been nominated and selected as one of 20 WZID ‘Outstanding Women,” she said, noting that about 500 candidates were put forward.
“I was nominated by my oldest daughter Jenn with the help of three other of my students,” she said. “My daughter spoke about me as a mother and educator/principal.”
Saucier is in her ninth year at West Running Brook. She began her education career in 1976 as a second grade teacher, and also taught fourth grade, then took time off to raise her children before returning to teach sixth, seventh and eighth grades at Gilbert H. Hood Middle School. After five years as Assistant Principal at Woodbury School in Salem and two years as Assistant Principal at Derry Village Elementary School, she became principal at West Running Brook.
Saucier said she always wanted to be a teacher. “I used to play school with my older sister every day,” she said. “She was principal and I was the teacher.”
She also noted the inspiration she received from her own teachers. And school administration runs in the family – her brother was principal at Medford High School and her sister was principal at a Portsmouth elementary school.
According to Jennifer Cannon, WZID coordinator for the 20 Outstanding Women event, “We were looking for women who ‘made a difference at the job, in their home and in the community.’ We had a panel of judges from the Manchester Radio Group, Hannaford and Dartmouth-Hitchcock that selected the final women based on the quality on the nomination.”
The winners were honored at a luncheon in February and an awards ceremony in March, and received a variety of gifts.
