Irving, TX— Texas Education Technology Leaders (TETL) has announced that Dr. Amber Teamann, Plano Independent School District led by Assistant Superintendent of Technology Services Dr. Patrick Tanner, and Dr. Martha Salazar-Zamora, are the winners of their annual awards.
Dr. Amber Teamann, Chief Technology Officer, Crandall ISD, is the recipient of the Grace Hopper Award
Named for Grace Hopper, a pioneer of computer programming and leader as a U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, the award serves as TETL’s “Outstanding CTO of the Year” award. Exceptional leadership in educational technology requires a rare balance: the ability to manage complex, high-stakes infrastructure while never losing sight of the deeply human needs of the classroom. Dr. Amber Teamann does exactly that, grounding her work in three unwavering principles: clarity, consistency, and follow-through.
As the technology leader for Crandall ISD, Dr. Teamann transitioned the district from a reactive model to proactive innovation by engineering a resilient, independent internet circuit with a secondary failover, keeping campuses fully operational during a major regional outage. Additionally, she established robust standard operating procedures, enhanced data privacy, and generated $1.2 million in savings over two budget cycles.
Teamann’s true impact lies in her ability to connect operational decisions directly to the classroom. Through her signature initiative, “Walk About Wednesdays,” she ensures that her entire department—from network engineers to her administrative assistant—spent intentional time in classrooms to see firsthand how technology serves teachers and students.
Teamann is a leader who models both grit and grace. Known for her direct and accessible communication, she routinely asks for the most upset parent phone calls to be routed straight to her desk so she can apply her trusted “principal lens” to find a solution. And when it comes to cybersecurity, she replaced a culture of tech-shame with a culture of shared responsibility, famously softening the blow of failed phishing simulations by personally delivering feedback with a pack of Swedish Fish to those who demonstrated opportunities for improvement.
Teamann’s influence extends far beyond her district lines. A sought-after speaker, author, and vital contributor to the East Texas Technology Directors group and state conferences like TETL, she is a trusted voice that peers look to for practical, real-world solutions. Always looking to lift others, Teamann recently partnered with Texas Tech University to establish a doctoral cohort, building a sustainable pipeline for the next generation of leaders.
Plano ISD, led by Assistant Superintendent of Technology Services Dr. Patrick Tanner, is the recipient of the TETL TEAM Award
The TETL TEAM Award is presented annually to a district technology team that demonstrates exceptional collaboration, innovation, and leadership in leveraging educational technology to support student learning, instructional excellence, and operational efficiency. This award recognizes teams whose collective efforts have a profound, measurable, and sustainable impact across their district.
In K-12, technology is too often just a series of isolated upgrades. True transformation requires institutional courage, clear pedagogical vision, and a commitment to removing systemic barriers. Over the past three years, the Technology Services team at Plano ISD has delivered exactly that—a fundamental reshaping of the digital experience for 44,000 students and 6,300 employees.
At the enterprise level, Plano ISD spearheaded a high-stakes migration to Skyward Qmlativ, eliminating data silos, cutting student record errors by 40%, and decreasing time spent for online enrollment by 30%. Consequently, they were named a 2026 Skyward Leader in Excellence.
The team also completely re-engineered school safety—upgrading access control across 500 doors, replacing 6,500 security cameras, and modernizing 7,000 VoIP phones for instantaneous, district-wide lockdown routing.
But what truly sets Plano ISD apart is that they lead with pedagogy, not procurement. They deployed over 45,600 stage-appropriate devices and launched the “Teaching Untethered” model, training 3,300 educators to break away from the traditional front-of-room desk and deliver dynamic instruction from anywhere in the classroom. While other districts banned emerging tech, Plano ISD took the lead—equipping leadership with new AI tools like Gemini, Copilot, and Claude Enterprise, while establishing the “TAPE” framework—Transparency, Accuracy, Process, Expectations—to teach students ethical AI use. They achieved all of this while keeping families connected, overhauling
the district’s digital footprint, and building a custom Single Sign-On system to
eliminate parent login fatigue.
Dr. Martha Salazar-Zamora, Superintendent of Tomball ISD, is the recipient of the Empowered Superintendent Award
Each year, TETL selects a superintendent who has promoted and supported innovative use of technology in their district. The award considers categories of leadership, state-of the-art projects, collaboration, and district awards and recognitions. True innovation in education requires a leader who can look at the global horizon, anticipate the future, and build a local runway to meet it. Dr. Martha Salazar-Zamora has done exactly that, transforming Tomball ISD from a premier Texas school district into a globally recognized Destination District for Innovation.
Salazar-Zamora’s leadership doesn’t just respond to change; it sets the pace. This year, her vision reached the international stage when she served as a U.S. Delegate to the BETT Global Education Week in London, collaborating at the University of Cambridge with world leaders to shape the future of Generative AI in education. Under her guidance, Tomball ISD became one of the very first districts in Texas to implement a formal, school board-approved AI policy—boldly establishing a secure “innovation sandbox” for her campuses long before state guidance was even issued. Salazar-Zamora’s approach is a masterclass in “Radical Transparency.” She treats technology not as a top-down mandate, but as a shared community mission.
Through initiatives like Parent University, Salazar-Zamora personally demystifies AI literacy and data privacy for families, turning potential apprehension into collective advocacy. Regionally, she created the TRAINS Symposium—Tomball’s Roundtable for Artificial Intelligence Networking Symposium—bringing together higher education giants like Rice University and leaders from over 36 school districts to forge the future of AI-driven lesson design.
From transforming a 70-acre industrial site into a world-class CTE Super Campus, complete with VR simulations and cybersecurity pathways, to piloting Texas’s first PowerSchool PowerBuddy AI instructional assistant, she has fundamentally closed the gap between classroom and career. Under her leadership Tomball has seen a marked surge in student oral reading fluency, double-digit increases in writing stamina, and a significant rise in industry-based certifications. She has proven that when you combine
institutional courage with deep community trust, you achieve true excellence.
About Texas Education Technology Leaders TETL is a chapter of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and is the premier organization for technology leaders in Texas K-12 school districts. Being a leader in the field of education technology depends on having the right support and guidance to stay ahead of quickly changing technology trends. Your network is key to helping the school districts you serve implement the best systems and solutions possible. We understand the challenges you face today—and we help you look ahead to what’s on the horizon. We tailor our services to support you and to help you stay one step ahead of an ever-changing technology environment. We empower education technology leaders . . . for today and tomorrow.