Key Takeaways
- This year’s meeting was the first such face-to-face Leadership Summit in two years.
- By focusing on the seven skills at the heart of the NEA Leadership Competency Framework, participants received the training and resources needed to become effective union leaders.
More than 1,400 educators—ranging from librarians to aspiring educators, college professors, school social workers, and education support professionals—recently came together in Las Vegas for a three-day summit focused on empowering NEA members to become agents for growth and change in their school communities.
The annual NEA National Leadership Summit, held this year from March 11-13, provided educators with the leadership training needed to become effective advocates for their union and their profession. The theme of this year’s summit, “Uniting for a better future for our students, our educators and our communities,” highlighted the importance of educators working together to strengthen public education for the common good. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this was the first year NEA offered participants the opportunity to participate in a hybrid summit. More than 200 educators took advantage of the chance to virtually attend the summit’s plenaries, breakout sessions, and keynote speeches.
This year’s meeting, the first such face-to-face Leadership Summit in two years, was held amid a rise in external threats against public education. In her opening address at the summit, NEA President Becky Pringle praised the gathered educators for the transformative—and continuing commitment—they have shown to the profession, despite the challenges they have had to face as a result of the pandemic, systemic racism, and growing attacks on public education.
"Each and every day, you continue to use hope to create the kinds of schools, worksites, campuses, and communities that reflect our shared hopes and dreams; our highest possibilities,” Pringle told the educators. "You have fought for safe and just working and learning conditions for your kids and your colleagues. Your hope is helping to reimagine a public education system that acknowledges, and addresses the inequities that COVID-19 revealed to the nation and worsened for so many of our Black, Brown, and Indigenous students—inequities that are firmly rooted in the structural racism that was baked within our country’s soil since its beginning."
Over the course of the summit, educators used that sense of hope to learn and grow as leaders in public education. By focusing on the seven skills at the heart of the NEA Leadership Competency Framework—advocacy, communication, governance and leadership, leading our professions, organizing, social and emotional intelligence, and strategy and fiscal health—participants received the training and resources needed to become effective union leaders.
In breakout sessions across the summit’s three days, educators held discussions about using social media to engage lawmakers and fellow educators; organizing together to effect needed change; addressing ways of combating stress and burnout in education; recognizing and confronting the threat against voting rights across the country; and designing and implementing social and racial justice training programs. Participants learned about the origins of the nationwide “Red for Ed” movement and the power of educators as advocates for their schools, communities, and profession. And educators were provided with successful case studies and examples of effective organizing campaigns against threats to public education.
In a moving plenary speech, NEA Vice President Princess Moss spoke to the participants about her sister’s death during the pandemic, and the impact that it had on her as a union leader and public educator. "The things I experienced during this time—especially the loss of my sister—have given me several important lessons to carry with me on my leadership journey,” Moss said.
Moss shared six leadership lessons that she learned from experiencing the pain of loss: leaders must be willing to seek out help; leaders must be willing to be vulnerable; leaders must share their stories to inspire other educators; leaders must share their unique gifts freely; leaders must remain open to growth and transformation; and leaders must show love—both to themselves and to others.
“We can’t escape the pain we have experienced nor the burden we have carried over the last two years and continue to carry today,” NEA Secretary Treasurer Noel Candelaria said during his closing plenary speech. “As we end this weekend, we must continue to move forward. We must be more determined, more fearless, and more devoted to our vision for public education and this nation.”
Participants also heard inspiring keynote speeches about the importance of working together for the betterment of public education. 2021 National Teacher of the Year Juliana Urtubey, a National Board Certified elementary school teacher in Las Vegas who is known for her efforts to unify her school community through the use of murals and gardens, spoke to her fellow educators about the importance of creating a joyous and just education system. “When we create collective spaces, there is space for us all to feel empowered,” Urtubey told the educators.
To close out the conference, educators also heard from Dr. Timothy Shriver, who has served as chairman of the Special Olympics for more than 25 years. In his keynote address, Dr. Shriver spoke to participants about the importance of resilience in the face of pressure and pain.
“We, in this moment, have the secret to building the next generation of ‘America the Possible,’ ” Dr. Shriver said. “The new resilience is in your hands. You have the training, skills, and disposition to do this.”
Over the course of the summit, educators had the opportunity to ask questions, grow as activist leaders, and collaborate with one another to confront the challenges that they face on a daily basis. Equipped with this knowledge, participants will return to their schools and communities with the resources needed to safeguard public education—turning hope into change, ideas into action, and educators into empowered leaders.
“Together, we will reimagine the future of public education,” Pringle said. “Armed with what we have endured these last two years, we will bring forth that vision of the world we want to live in; the world we want for our children. And we can’t be intimidated or deterred by the boldness of that vision; that it seems too big or too impossible to achieve.”
