When Karen Christian was growing up in Flint, both of her parents were public school teachers and leaders in United Teachers of Flint who taught her the importance of unions.

Last week at the MEA Representative Assembly, after a dozen years as UTF president having led the unit through multiple crises to a celebrated contract, Christian was honored with MEA’s Paul Blewett Friend of Education Award as her mother proudly looked on.

“That’s my sweet Karen,” her mom, Johnnie Sue Petrich, said. “She loves people, and she’s so caring. She’s just a good person.”

A former science teacher in the district, Petrich remembers her daughter as a high schooler performing with the flag corps during the halftime of a football game before heading over to join a union picket line that included her dad, who taught choir and English.

“Our family has always been big in the union,” Petrich said, adding she became a building rep in her second year of teaching. “We need our young people to know what we went through to get where we are today. It was hard fought and hard won.”

The Blewett award was presented before hundreds of MEA delegates at the annual governance meeting by Felicia Naimark, a Flint educator who has known Christian for more than 20 years and now serves alongside her as secretary-treasurer of UTF.

In addition to serving as local president, Christian is president of Region 10 and a senior member of the MEA Board of Directors.

“While other districts have had their struggles, Flint is unlike many in our difficulties from the effects of the auto industry moving out of the Flint area to the water crisis, the changeover in superintendents, and the instability of our board,” Naimark said. “We are not an easy district to be president of.

“Karen fights every day for our staff and students.”

Christian’s biggest local win came in 2024 amid a crisis that escalated after a bargained contract agreement was later rejected by the school board. Teachers had expected to be made whole following double-digit salary concessions and step freezes over a decade.

UTF members took voluntary pay cuts of 19% in 2014 to keep the district afloat with the promise of future restoration. Soon after, Christian was first elected president vowing to lead a turnaround, but for years the district maintained step freezes that drove away staff.

The winning crisis effort involved weeks of informational picketing, long lines of members testifying at board meetings, rallying the community, and a climactic day when 119 teachers called in sick and forced the district to close.

“Our efforts were successful, and those at the top of the pay scale are now making almost what they were when they took those cuts all those years ago,” Naimark said.

In accepting the honor, which comes with a monetary award endowed through the trust of Blewett — a longtime educator and leader from the Upper Peninsula — Christian thanked the many people at the RA who showed up to picket in support of Flint teachers.

“I want you to know you are a part of our community,” she said. “We are a part of public education, and public education is what’s going to make our students become who they want to be in the future.”

Nearly 35 years ago, as a new teacher in Flint, her mom told her to run to be a building rep, Christian told the crowd. “So when it came time in my building and they said, ‘OK – who wants to run? And I was like —” raising her hand.

“They were like, ‘You have no idea what you’re getting into,’” she quipped.

She’s proud that members of UTF found their voice when it mattered, she said. “They didn’t realize the power they had in this community; it took a long time for us to build that power.”

Christian credited her mom for setting her and her siblings on the right path: “My mom made it very clear to us every single day when we left home — don’t forget who you are, who you represent, and why you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”