Mrs. Brenda Hendricks has been a public school teacher for eleven years. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Middle Level Education from Harding University in 2011. She earned a Master of Science in Gifted, Talented, and Creative Education from Arkansas State University in 2018, and later added an ESL endorsement. Mrs. Hendricks began her teaching career at Ahlf Junior High School in Searcy, AR, teaching 8th grade. She moved to Conway in 2018, and has taught at Courtway Middle School and Ruth Doyle Middle School. She has taught all core subject areas, but began teaching Gifted and Talented at Ruth Doyle last year. Mrs. Hendricks believes that all students should be encouraged to achieve their highest potential; she prioritizes relationships with her students to provide individualized enrichment and support. She also loves to provide opportunities for all RDMS students to challenge themselves academically- she is the sponsor for Quiz Bowl, Math Olympiad, and is involved with the Chess club. Mrs. Hendricks is also responsible for the RDMS Yearbook. Outside of the classroom, Brenda loves to spend time with her family. She is married to Mr. Ty Hendricks, the principal of Carl Stuart Middle School, and they have two daughters, Cora and Eleanor.
2024-2025 Ruth Doyle Teacher of the Year
Brenda Hendricks
2023-2024 Ruth Doyle Teacher of the Year
Damara Willcutt
Damara Willcutt has spent her calling using her personal and career experience to educate, empower, and include students with disabilities and to provide them and their families with support. As the mother of a son who has Asperger's Syndrome, she knows how to communicate and advocate for her students and families.
Damara’s educational path began in 1994 by attending South Arkansas Community College. Here, she served on the academic leadership board and worked with the Dean of Schools. After graduating, Damara attended Louisiana Tech University. She served on the board of Council of Exceptional Children, a member of The Fellowship, and President of University Council of Education Administration. After receiving her Bachelors of Science, Damara returned to Arkansas. After receiving a job at Lonoke Exceptional School, she enrolled into graduate school at the University of Central Arkansas. She worked at Lonoke Exceptional School providing developmental therapy and led 6 classrooms. Damara received a job working for Easter Seals of Arkansas. She was able to learn interdisciplinary therapies and evaluations. Then, Damara began work at Arch Ford Education Service Cooperative. She served as an developmental therapist, an Autism testing team member, and received certification in Discrete Trial and Pivotal Response Trainings. Damara was one out of two early childhood developmental therapists to represent the state of Arkansas to help develop questions for the PRAXIS at Princeton University. She trained for 2 months over a 2 year period working with educators around the nation. After 7 years, Damara became a Conway Wampus Cat. She has served students at the following schools: Mattison, Marguerite Vann, Theodore Jones, Woodrow Cummins, and Ruth Doyle. Damara serves as a resource, inclusion, self-contained, and as a homebound teacher. She is certified in general education reading, ELA, science, social studies, and math P-8 and special education instructional specialist. Damara has been involved with Community Connections as well as serving at her church. This school year, Damara is a collaborator of Meeting in the Middle: Caring Cats program.
Damara continues to work at Ruth Doyle and lives with her husband and two children.
2022-2023 Ruth Doyle Teacher of the Year
Mechelle Dunlap
Mechelle Dunlap is a special education teacher in the Conway Public School District. She is certified as a Special Education Instructional Specialist for pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. She is also certified as a reading specialist for pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Mrs. Dunlap graduated with a BSE in Special Education Mildly Handicapped in December of 2001. She graduated with an MSE in Reading Specialist in 2008. In 2009, she completed the English as a Second Language Graduate Academy. Mrs. Dunlap has taught in the Conway Public School district for nineteen years, with one year teaching outside of the district in Pulaski County Special School District. She has served as a resource, inclusion, intervention, and indirect teacher during her career.
She has spent the last thirteen years teaching in resource, inclusion, intervention, and indirect settings to fifth through seventh graders. During this time, she attended professional conferences through the Council for Exceptional Children. She attended required professional development as well as additional professional development and training in a variety of areas. She has been trained in two Orton-Gillingham methods to better enable her to serve her students with dyslexia.
Mrs. Dunlap believes that all children can learn and deserve to be given the opportunity to learn. Teaching special education gives her the opportunity to work with students who have either fallen behind their peers or who are struggling to maintain performance at grade level. In her spare time, Mrs. Dunlap enjoys reading and traveling with her husband and four children.
2021-2022 Ruth Doyle Teacher of the Year
Jennifer Seifert
Jennifer graduated with a BSE in Early Childhood Education from the University of Central Arkansas. Her first years of teaching were at Mayflower Elementary School, and she taught kindergarten for two and a half years. She returned to teaching twelve years later to Ruth Doyle Middle School, and she has been a fifth-grade math teacher for eight years.
2020-2021 RDMS Teacher of the Year
Erika Easley
You would be hard-pressed to find a single person at Ruth Doyle Middle School that doesn’t appreciate and adore Mrs. Erika Easley. I second the words of the faculty that nominated her. “Ericka is a beautiful ray of sunshine EVERY single day. She loves her students and goes above and beyond to ensure they succeed. She loves her job and goes out of her way to make others happy.”
2019-2020 RDMS Teacher of the Year
Julie Haynes
In the first few moments of stepping into Mrs. Haynes’ classroom, you will get excited about math. Her enthusiasm while teaching is contagious to the students and anyone that observes her. She has a gift of relating concepts in math to something relevant in a middle-school aged student’s life. It is evident Mrs. Haynes genuinely cares about, connects with, and loves her students.