Cypress College Instructor Voted California Automotive Teacher of the Year

Cypress College Automotive Technology Instructor and Toyota T-TEN Program Coordinator Michael Klyde was selected by his peers in the California Automotive Teachers (CAT) Association as Automotive Teacher of the Year, 2021. The CAT board plans to honor Klyde for this achievement with a virtual ceremony and plaque presentation this fall.

Automotive Technology students on campus in the garage working on the Toyota T-TEN program.

CAT President Wendy Lucko informed Klyde of the news in a phone call, and said he was selected for this honor because of his continuous hard work and dedication as a professor in one of the top performing T-TEN programs. In addition to teaching during this 20-21 school year, Klyde has authored two advance automotive textbooks and received peer recognition, working with a small team to develop a Safe Labs plan to get automotive students back into labs as soon as possible.

Klyde presented the Safe Labs material to T-TEN instructors in May 2020 at Toyota headquarters and to attendees of the Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) National Instructor Conference last August. He also created generic versions of the materials and presented them at the ASE Education Foundation conference in July 2020 and at the CAT Conference in October 2020. He has also shared these resources with others on the Cypress College campus so colleagues can adapt them for use in their respective areas.