Longtime Brown County High School theater department director Laurie Godfrey has been inducted into the Indiana Thespians Hall of Fame.

Godfrey — lovingly called “Doc” by her students — has been the theater director at Brown County High School for 14 years.

In March 2017, she received the Lifetime Achievement award from the Brown County Playhouse for her work in the department — which includes bringing home state thespian conference championships in 2012 and 2013 and placing in the top five shows six times at the state level.

This year, former students from Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach, where Godfrey used to teach, sang her praises in a tribute video on the Indiana Thespians Facebook page, speaking to her generosity, passion and desire to create a space where students could freely be themselves.

Principal Matt Stark of Brown County High School said in the video that Godfrey has made “very clear” that her goal as a teacher — especially a drama teacher — was to create a safe space for students no matter their background or challenges.

“You’ve had a tremendous amount of success,” Stark said, “but I think that’s because the core of who you are is that you care about people; you care about what happens in the bigger picture beyond the walls of your classroom.”

Godfrey earned a bachelor’s degree from Florida Southern College in speech, drama and history. She spent years acting in theater, television and films. She became a mother to two sons.

She continued to act, teach at the university level and earn master’s and doctoral degrees in communication from Regent University in Virginia. She was named an outstanding graduate in the Institute of Performing Arts in 1992.

She became director of three different theater companies, then taught theater in Virginia Beach when the companies went on hiatus. She came to Brown County High School in 2007.