Kaycee Eckhardt taught in Japan for four years before being inspired by Hurricane Katrina to return to her Louisiana home. She taught for a year before joining the founding staff of Sci Academy, which for the past three years has been first in the district in state testing, while maintaining an open-enrollment, free-tuition policy.She has been teaching freshman reading for the past three years and scholars leave her classroom averaging nearly three years of reading growth.She was named Louisiana Charter School Association Teacher of the Year in 2008-2009.