Honoree Spotlight: Noah Lippe-Klein Elected UTLA West Area Chair
2024 Carlston Award recipient expands his commitment to teachers and students across Los Angeles.
When Above & Beyond Teaching recognized Noah Lippe-Klein with the 2024 Carlston Outstanding Teachers of America Award, it was in honor of 25 years of unwavering commitment to students, community, and the kind of teaching that changes lives. Today, that commitment is reaching further than ever.
Lippe-Klein — a science and history teacher at Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles — has been elected to the Board of Directors of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and, in a competitive runoff election, as UTLA's West Area Chair. UTLA is the union representing more than 35,000 educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the United States. As West Area Chair, Lippe-Klein serves as the union's chairperson for more than 100 schools across the western part of the city. He remains a full-time classroom teacher.
The election reflects what those who know Lippe-Klein's work have long understood: his impact doesn't stop at the classroom door. Over his career, he co-founded Students Deserve, helped lead the "Making Black Lives Matter in Schools" campaign, and played a central role in creating LAUSD's Black Student Achievement Plan — a landmark program now funneling $100 million annually into services for Black students and being replicated in districts across California. He has also spent more than two decades mentoring new teachers and guiding them toward culturally responsive, justice-centered practice.
As West Area Chair, Lippe-Klein has pledged to bring that same organizing energy to union leadership — listening to members, building relationships across schools, and elevating new voices in a more democratic union.
Above & Beyond Teaching is proud to celebrate this milestone for a teacher who embodies what the Carlston Award recognizes: extraordinary educators who lift not just their students, but their entire communities.
