Lily Eskelsen García (
née Pace; born May 1, 1955) is an American
teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
and
labor union leader. As president of the 3 million-member
National Education Association
The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college stud ...
, she led the largest union in the United States from 2014 to 2020.
Early life and education
Lily Eskelsen García was born Lilia Laura Pace
on May 1, 1955, in
Fort Hood, Texas
Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, Texas. Named after Confederate General John Bell Hood, it is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about from each, within the U.S. state of Texas. The post is the headquarter ...
.
Her father was in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
. Her mother is from
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
.
["Lily Eskelsen: Teacher Rises to Executive Post at Nat'l Education Association," April 7, 2009, Suzanne Heibel--HispanicBusiness.com, 2009](_blank)
After high school, she married Ruel Eskelsen, with whom she had two children before his death on March 18, 2011.
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
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
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
The Granite School District spreads across central Salt Lake County, Utah, serving West Valley City, Millcreek, Taylorsville, South Salt Lake, and Holladay; Kearns and Magna Townships; and parts of West Jordan, Murray and Cottonwood Heights. ...
in
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
. 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
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
'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
The Utah Education Association (UEA) is the largest public education employees' union in the U.S. state of Utah, representing more than 18,000 teachers. It has local affiliates in 41 school districts, Applied Technology Colleges, and the Utah Scho ...
, an affiliate of the
National Education Association
The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college stud ...
(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.
Eskelsen García is a national leader among Hispanic educators; she addressed the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) is a Hispanic nonprofit and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) leadership development organization established in 1978 by organizing members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and is headquartered in ...
Public Policy Conference in September 2008. Her education advice for parents has been published in ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'', ''
Working Mother
''Working Mother'' was a magazine for working mothers launched in 1979 by Founding Publisher Milton Lieberman, who was succeeded by Carol Evans . The founding editor of the magazine was Vivian Cadden, who retired as editor in 1990. Subsequent edi ...
'', and ''
Woman's World
''Woman's World'' is an American supermarket weekly magazine with a circulation of 1.6 million readers. Printed on paper generally associated with tabloid publications and priced accordingly, it concentrates on short articles about subjects such a ...
'', and she has been featured on
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
's ''
Hannity & Colmes
''Hannity & Colmes'' was a live television show on Fox News in the United States, hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, who respectively presented a conservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered on October 7, 1996, and the final epi ...
'' and
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
's ''
Lou Dobbs Tonight
''Lou Dobbs Tonight'' was an American political and financial talk program that was hosted by Lou Dobbs.
The program initially aired on CNN from its launch under the title ''Moneyline'', as its main financial news program. The program later shif ...
''. 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 has been part of NEA's recent emphasis on working with the
American labor movement
The labor history of the United States describes the history of organized labor, US labor law, and more general history of working people, in the United States. Beginning in the 1930s, unions became important allies of the Democratic Party.
T ...
; she appeared in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
on December 10, 2009, with labor leaders from the
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the ...
and the
AFL-CIO to speak out against taxing health-care benefits, where she said, "We should tax the millionaires, not teachers and bus drivers."
Personal life
She was married to Ruel Eskelsen, who died in 2011. She is currently married to graphic artist Alberto Garcia with whom she published the 2014 book, ''Rabble Rousers: Fearless Fighters for Social Justice''.
Politics and controversy
In 1998, she was the first
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...
person to be chosen as the Democratic Party's nominee for a U.S. Congressional seat in Utah, raising almost $1 million,
and receiving 45% of the vote, ultimately losing to incumbent
Merrill Cook
Merrill Cook (born May 6, 1946) is a Republican Party politician and businessman who served in the United States House of Representatives from Utah.
Early life and career
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Co ...
in the
general election.
In 2000, she served as a member of President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
's White House Strategy Session on Improving Hispanic Education,
and in 2011,
President Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
named her a member of the
President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.
In November 2015, Eskelsen Garcia received backlash for comments she made during the Campaign for America's Future Awards Gala. During a speech, she said, "We diversify our curriculum instruction to meet the personal individual needs of all of our students, the blind, the hearing impaired, the physically challenged, the gifted and talented, the chronically tarded and the medically annoying." Several organizations, including the
American Association of People with Disabilities
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which advocates for the legal rights of people with disabilities.Imparato, Andrew J. 2005. "AAPD In Its Second Decade," ''AAPDnews'' (Spring 2005), ...
and
National Down Syndrome Society
The National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) is an American organization that offers support to people with Down syndrome, their families, friends, teachers, and coworkers, and educates the general public about Down syndrome. The mission of the NDS ...
, called on her to apologize and asked for more open dialogue regarding students with disabilities. Eskelsen Garcia apologized on her blog, saying she had misspoken while trying to be funny - she had meant to say "chronically tardy", and by "medically annoying" she had meant those who use their own problems to purposefully disrupt class and the teacher, rather than those with medical issues.
In 2016, Eskelsen Garcia campaigned for
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
. She spoke at the
2016 Democratic National Convention
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...
.
After the inauguration of Donald Trump, she described him and the nominee for Secretary of Education (
Betsy DeVos
Elisabeth Dee DeVos ( ; ' Prince; born January 8, 1958) is an American politician, philanthropist, and former government official who served as the 11th United States secretary of education from 2017 to 2021. DeVos is known for her support for ...
) as having an agenda to "profitize, privatize and ... throw a middle-class child into the street saying, 'Let them eat for-profit vouchers.'". More than 1 million emails opposing DeVos' nomination were generated through NEA's online form. Eskelsen Garcia continued to oppose the administration's budget priorities in 2018, calling the proposed 13.5% cut in education spending a "wrecking ball" aimed at public schools.
In 2020, Eskelsen Garcia was instrumental in securing an endorsement by the NEA for 2020 presidential candidate
Joe Biden in the primary and general elections. However, some union members stated their voices weren't heard, as "the rank and file were not asked who they wanted to support". Joe Biden's goal for education has been described as "support
ngteachers, but that's about as far as his plan goes" and that there is "no real structural plan".
In 2020, García was named a candidate for
Secretary of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
in the
Biden Administration
Joe Biden's tenure as the 46th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden, a Democrat from Delaware who previously served as vice president under Barack Obama, took office following his victory ...
, but
Connecticut education commissioner Miguel Cardona
Miguel Angel Cardona (born July 11, 1975) is an American educator and is currently serving as the 12th United States Secretary of Education under President Joe Biden since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was confirmed by the U.S. S ...
was chosen instead. She is reported to have a close working relationship with incoming First Lady
Jill Biden
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (born June 3, 1951) is an American educator and the current first lady of the United States since 2021, as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was the second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her hus ...
, fellow NEA member and educator.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eskelsen Garcia, Lily
1955 births
Living people
People from Fort Hood, Texas
People from Salt Lake City
University of Utah alumni
Presidents of the National Education Association
American trade union leaders
Schoolteachers from Utah
American women educators
American people of Panamanian descent
Trade unionists from Texas
People from North Salt Lake, Utah
Candidates in the 1998 United States elections
Utah Democrats
20th-century American women
21st-century American women