BY KATHI STEARNS

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Sister Dawn Gear, GNSH, principal of the Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan School, has been named one of 60 National Distinguished Principals.

The award is presented annually and sponsored jointly by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Association of Elementary School Principals in corporate partnership with the Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company.

One principal is selected from each of the 50 states, one from the District of Columbia, five from private K-8 schools and two each from the Department of Defense Dependents' Schools and the Department of State Overseas Schools. Sister Gear is one of the five private school principals chosen.

She will receive her award certificate and a brass school bell at an awards banquet Sept. 20 in Washington, D.C.

The award was established in 1984 to honor elementary and middle school principals who set the pace, character and quality of the education children receive during their early school years.

Criteria for nomination and selection include a commitment to excellence, the successful development of programs designed to meet the academic and social needs of all students and evidence of firm ties to parents and the community. The principal must also show evidence of outstanding contributions to the community and to the education profession.

Dr. Robert Kealey, president of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), nominated Sister Gear for the award.

"I have enjoyed my 31 years in education and feel very honored to receive such a prestigious award," Sister Gear said. "I owe a lot of my success to all the wonderful students, teachers, parents and clergy and the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart."

Sister Gear was named a recipient of the 1996 Distinguished Principal Award for the South Atlantic States Region IV of the NCEA in December 1995.

Sister Gear spent 14 years as an elementary school teacher and three years as a teacher at St. Pius X Catholic High School before becoming the assistant dean of students in 1982.

She became the founding principal of St. John Neumann Regional School, Lilburn, in 1986 and guided the school from an initial enrollment of 160 to a capacity enrollment of over 600 and was instrumental in the school being named a National School of Excellence in 1990.

In addition to her professional work Sister Gear has served in a variety of positions for the Atlanta Conference of Sisters including a three-year term as president. She is also a former member of the Archdiocesan Board of Education, serving as vice president for the 1990-91 academic year. Sister Gear is currently a member of the Archdiocesan Committee for the Advancement of Catholic Schools.