Allison Mitkowski grew up in a small, industrial town in central Connecticut. After making several hiking trips out West, she moved to northern Arizona in 2010 with her husband and son, settling just outside of Williams in rural Coconino County.

Allison became a teacher in 2016 after realizing that her passion was working with adolescents. She left the business world for the classroom in 2016 to teach technology to students in grades K-8, and then went back to school to earn her teaching credentials through Rio Salado College’s Teacher Preparation Program. Upon completing the program and achieving teacher certification, she was hired by Williams Unified School District, where she has been teaching happily ever since.

Prior to becoming an educator, Allison held a variety of roles, from newspaper journalist to curriculum developer for Yale School of Management’s MBA program. She also served as Director of Education for United Way of Northern Arizona, and Education and Training Manager for Nestle Purina PetCare in Flagstaff, where she earned Master Trainer certification from the company.

In 2023, Allison was named Arizona Rural Schools Teacher of the Year by the Arizona Rural Schools Association and Northern Arizona University. She was previously honored by her peers with a Teacher of the Year award for Williams Elementary-Middle School in 2022, and later that year was also nominated for Coconino County Teacher of the Year. Allison holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Connecticut, and an M.S. in Journalism from Boston University. She currently teaches English Language Arts, Economics and Government at Williams High School.