Brenda Álvarez

On July 5, almost 6,000 delegates elected a slate of officers, during NEA’s Representative Assembly (RA) in Denver—ushering in a new era of leaders as the association looks to build on its priorities and meet the challenges ahead.

Before the organizing, healing, and defending public education began, educators arriving at this year’s NEA Conference on Racial and Social Justice, in Denver, were already talking about what they hoped to learn and how they could turn those lessons into action in their schools and communities. Gillian Van Delft is an elementary school social worker in Massachusetts. For Gillian Van Delft, a Massachusetts elementary school social worker, the answer wasn’t professional development.

Advancing educational equity, advocating for civil rights, and strengthening underserved communities are just a few of the accomplishments of this years’ NEA Human and Civil Rights (HCR) Award winners. Rooted in NEA’s 1966 merger with the American Teachers Association (ATA), which represented Black teachers in segregated schools across the South, the annual event honors individuals and organizations that advance justice through education.