Ames High School chemistry teacher Aileen Sullivan is the 2018 Iowa Teacher of the Year, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Wednesday. Sullivan, 43, has taught at Ames High School since 1996 and is known for challenging her students, her colleagues and herself to grow and improve. Reynolds noted that Sullivan is also a mentor and a model teacher in Ames as part of Iowa’s new teacher leadership system. Sullivan comes from a long line of teachers in her family and married a teacher, Joel, who also teaches at Ames High. She started envisioning herself as a teacher back in third grade, when she drew pictures of herself sitting at the teacher’s desk.