Lily Eskelsen García facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lily Eskelsen García
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| President of the National Education Association | |
| In office September 1, 2014 – September 1, 2020 |
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| Preceded by | Dennis Van Roekel |
| Succeeded by | Rebecca S. Pringle |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Lilia Laura Pace
May 1, 1955 Fort Hood, Texas, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses |
Ruel Eskelsen
(died 2011)Alberto Garcia
(m. 2016) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | University of Utah (BA, MS) |
Lily Eskelsen García (née Pace; born May 1, 1955) is an American teacher and labor union leader. She served as president of the National Education Association from 2014 to 2020.
Early life and education
Lily Eskelsen García was born Lilia Laura Pace on May 1, 1955, in Fort Hood, Texas. Her father was in the United States Army. Her mother is from Panama.
Eskelsen García began her career as a cafeteria worker, and then as an aide to a special education teacher. At this teacher's suggestion, she went back to school to pursue a teaching degree. She worked her way through the University of Utah on scholarships, student loans, and as a starving folk singer, graduating magna cum laude in elementary education and later earning her master's degree in instructional technology.
Teaching
In 1980, Eskelsen García went to work teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth grades at Orchard Elementary in the Granite School District in Utah. In 1989, she was named Utah Teacher of the Year. Later, while in union leadership positions, she taught homeless children in a single classroom at Salt Lake City's homeless shelter and the Christmas Box House Children's Shelter, a kindergarten through 6th grade one-room public school serving hard-to-place foster children in Salt Lake City.
Labor leadership
The press coverage she received as a result of the Teacher of the Year award encouraged her to run for office, and in 1990, she won a write-in election as president of the Utah Education Association, an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). One of her initiatives as president was to organize the Children at Risk Foundation; she served as its first president. She also served as president of Utah Retirement Systems.
In 1996, she was elected to the NEA Executive Committee. In 2002, she was elected NEA Secretary-Treasurer with 78 percent of the vote, the first time a four-candidate race was decided on the first ballot. She served two three-year terms as treasurer, under NEA president Reg Weaver. On July 4, 2008, she was elected NEA vice-president, and she was re-elected at the 2011 NEA Representative Assembly with over 90% of the vote. At the 2014 NEA Representative Assembly in Denver, Colorado, she was elected NEA President and served as NEA President until September 1, 2020, when she was succeeded by Becky Pringle.
In September 2008, Eskelsen García addressed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Conference. Her education advice for parents has been published in Time, Working Mother, and Woman's World, and she has been featured on Fox News's Hannity & Colmes and CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight. She has been the invited keynote speaker for hundreds of education events across the United States and was highlighted by Education World in their "Best Conference Speakers" edition. She writes a blog, "Lily's Blackboard," covering the latest education issues.
Her union leadership has included writing protest songs, such as one about the No Child Left Behind Act. As vice president, she was part of NEA's emphasis on working with the American labor movement; she appeared in Washington, D.C. on December 10, 2009, with labor leaders from the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO to speak out against taxing health-care benefits.
Personal life
After high school, Lily married Ruel Eskelsen, with whom she had two children before his death on March 18, 2011. She is currently married to graphic artist Alberto Garcia, with whom she published the 2014 book, Rabble Rousers: Fearless Fighters for Social Justice.
