Debbie Nelson
This week we will feature another UJA teacher: Debbie Nelson. Debbie was born in Loma Linda, California. Her father was a student in the dental school and her mother had just completed her nursing degree. The next year, the family moved to Cambria, California. Debbie’s father became the only dentist in that small town. She and her sisters attended the local elementary and middle school before heading to Monterey Bay Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist boarding high school in La Selva Beach.
Debbie and I met our junior year at Pacific Union College. We both took a year out of college to serve as student missionaries in the Marshall Islands. While on the island of Majuro we taught at the mission school. Debbie taught Kindergarten and I was the 8th grade teacher.
After that year Debbie and I returned to Pacific Union College to continue working on our degrees. Debbie majored in Early Childhood Education, while also working on her elementary teaching credential. Debbie and I were married in August of 1986. We completed our Bachelor's degrees the next year and stayed for an additional year getting our Master’s degrees in Elementary Education with a reading emphasis.
We began our teaching career in Templeton, California, at a little two teacher school in the fall of 1988. She taught grades 1-4 that first year and I took grades 5-8. We taught at that little school for 7 years. Debbie taught various combinations of grades 1-4 during those years.
We then moved to Las Vegas where Debbie obtained her Nevada state license and was a teacher for the Clark County School District in 1st grade for the next two years. In 1997 we adopted our first child, Charity. For the next 3 years Debbie loved being a stay at home mom.
During the summer of 2000 we moved from Las Vegas to Chico, California, where we stayed for the next 18 years. During this time we adopted a boy, Isaac, and had a surprise baby boy, Micah. Debbie enjoyed her years raising our three young children. When Micah started school, she went back to work as the director of the preschool at Chico Oaks Adventist School.
In 2018 we moved to the Salem, Oregon area where Debbie obtained her Oregon teaching certificate. She worked as a substitute teacher in local public and private schools. She taught a preK class at Livingstone Adventist Academy during the 2019-2020 school year. We decided at the end of that school year that California is home for us and we headed back to teaching positions in Ukiah.
This is Debbie’s 7th year teaching at UJA. She has dedicated her time here to be the best teacher possible, to share the love of God with each and every student, and to help each one to grow into the very best version of themselves.
God bless,
Rick Nelson