Sheppard is a graduate of SUNY Oneonta and the City College of New York. She previously taught at a private school in Manhattan and the International School of Tanganyika in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and she worked at the Museum of Natural History developing educational programming for middle school students. Since 1994 she has taught life sciences to seventh- and eighth-graders at MAMS.

She found out about the Master Teacher program last year through an email listserv that Stony Brook University distributes. The state accepted applications from Long Island teachers between November 2013 and early January. Sheppard called the application process “rigorous,” and jokingly, “jumping through rings of fire.”

The state limited the program to sixth- to 12th-grade math and science teachers with New York teaching certificates, a minimum of four years teaching experience and an Annual Professional Performance Review ranking of “highly effective.”

Sheppard said that even though she has taught for 30 years, she had to submit her college transcript, letters of recommendation from colleagues and MAMS Principal Dr. Meador Pratt, and take a “content-knowledge” test in general science. After making it through this initial screening process, Sheppard spent a day participating in group interviews with Stony Brook education professors at the university. She and her fellow applicants also had to each present a lesson to the Stony Brook professors. Hers focused on the scientific properties of water and what makes it life-sustaining.

She called the process “nerve-racking, but worth it.”

When the Herald Life spoke to Sheppard, she was next scheduled to attend a meeting for Master Teachers on May 15 at Stony Brook. She said she looks forward to seeing how the program develops.