Aurora's Laurie Moniz earns Educator of the Year Award

Laurie Moniz of Aurora was named 2021 Educator of the Year by the NCRA, an organization representing stenographic court reporters, captioners, and legal videographers. Moniz is a court reporting instructor at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.

The announcement was made at the Association’s Conference & Expo, which took place July 29-Aug. 1 at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

NCRA’s CASE (Council on Approved Student Education) Award of Excellence recognizes the important role student education plays in the court reporting profession and honors educators for their dedication and outstanding achievement and leadership. Recipients are nominated by an NCRA member.

Moniz, who has been involved in the court reporting profession for 30 years, holds the highest level of seniority in Tri-C’s court reporting program. She is also a graduate of the Tri-C court reporting program.

“First, I want thank those who nominated me and am humbled to think they felt me deserving of this award,” Moniz said. “My love of this profession began the day I became a court reporting student. I would have never thought, in my wildest imagination, that one day I would be on the other side of that seat helping students fulfill their dream of becoming a court reporter. My greatest reward is their success. I am honored and proud to join the past recipients of the CASE Award of Excellence.”

She is credited with creating audio files as well as textual versions of non-punctuated sentences to aid students in learning the proper use of grammar and punctuation and course guides based on research in the field of editing legal documents. She is also known for sending frequent motivational emails to students. Most recently, Moniz has been creating extensive vocabulary development instructional materials for students in speedbuilding classes.

Moniz was nominated by Jen Krueger, a freelance court reporter and a court reporting instructor at Tri-C, who described her as a thoughtful individual who considers each student’s goals, needs, and abilities as she strives to put forth instruction that leads to success with skills and ultimately, graduation.

“She is relentless in her pursuit of continued success for herself, her students, and court reporting professionals,” Krueger said.

There is currently an increasing demand for more reporters and captioners to meet the growing number of employment opportunities available nationwide and abroad. Court reporters and captioners rely on the latest in technology to use stenographic machines to capture the spoken word and translate it into written text in real time. These professionals work both in and out of the courtroom recording legal cases and depositions, providing live captioning of events, and assisting members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities with gaining access to information, entertainment, educational opportunities, and more.