A Bulloch County teacher was honored recently for being a great leader and coach for Georgia's future educators. 

Portal Elementary’s Jessica Autry was named a recipient of the Georgia Mentor Teacher Award for the Southeast P-20 Regional Collaborative. She was selected for her work to help both high school and college students learn to become great teachers, according to a release from Bulloch County Schools. 

During its 2025-2026 biannual meeting at the Hilton Peachtree City Hotel in Atlanta, the Georgia Association of Colleges for Teacher Education presented Autry and eight other educators with Georgia Outstanding Mentor Awards, one for each of the state's nine regional education collaboratives. The recipients were nominated by postsecondary faculty from colleges of education from around the state.
Autry is the second-grade teacher at Portal and has been a teacher for more than 14 years. Autry also works with high school students who want to be educators as part of Bulloch County Schools' Teaching as a Profession and Early Childhood Education career pathways. 
“Without great mentors like Mrs. Autry, it would be much harder for new teachers to succeed,” school officials said. “She is a true partner in helping our schools grow.”
Autry was nominated for the award by Alisa Leckie, Ed.D., assistant dean of Partnerships and Outreach and a professor of English Learner Education at Georgia Southern University. 
The event and the award are sponsored by the Georgia Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Georgia Association of Educators, the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.

Autry has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Georgia Southern University. In 2014, she was named the Teacher of the Year for Portal Elementary.