Newsroom

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor For her determined advocacy in numerous roles at every level of MEA and NEA, Central Michigan University Professor Marcia Mackey is the 2026 winner of MEA’s James A. Davenport Award of Merit for significant service to higher education. Two childhood traits have served Marcia Mackey through a wide-ranging career in higher education and union…

By Dan Clason Clason, an MEA member in Clarkston, is the 2026 MEA Educational Excellence Award winner and Michigan's nominee for the NEA Foundation Awards for Teaching Excellence. He’s a prime example of how educational excellence and collective action go hand-in-hand — especially when it comes to the power of contributing to PAC. Attacks on public education have become the modus operandi…

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor Michelle James In the 16 years since becoming a paraeducator in Fraser Public Schools, MEA member Michelle  James helped form a union, assisted in bargaining the group’s first contract, and held every position in her local — including her current role as president. But it wasn’t until a recent bout with cancer that James…

Instructor Chad Williams engages with participants during Plymouth-Canton’s Paraeducator Bootcamp. MEA member Aaron Bailey knows what it is like to be a brand-new paraprofessional in a classroom at the beginning of the school year. “When I first started, I had very little training, and I was lucky enough to get teachers who had 10 or 15 years of experience and could…

Garlin Gilchrist for Secretary of State Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist “Education makes our democracy run by helping create an informed and engaged voting public. Defending democracy means defending public schools and the educators who help students succeed. I’ll stand tall against anyone who threatens Michiganders’ right to vote or freedom to learn.” Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, MEA recommended candidate for…

Dr. Rashida Harrison “Just like with solving any problem, lawmakers should consult the experts to make the right decisions — and for public education, that’s us: educators who know our jobs and what our students need. I’m committed to bringing that attitude to Lansing.” - Dr. Rashida Harrison, MEA member and Candidate for State Senate (District 28) Harrison, who until…

“Those of us who were there that day with our own children had to kind of put things aside. We had to be teachers and not just parents.” - Melissa Gibbons MEA member Melissa Gibbons knows everyone in Oxford suffered terrible effects five years ago when a 15-year-old student gunman killed four classmates and injured seven others, including a teacher.…

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor “I’m incredibly optimistic about what Oxford is capable of.” - Jim Gibbons, Oxford High School Band Director (photo from May 2022 courtesy of Andrew David Perkins) In five years since a deadly school shooting devastated the Oxford community, much has been done to heal the collective trauma, says Oxford High School Band Director Jim…

By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor “I can’t let this stop me. I am a people helper. To the day I die, I want to help people.” — Emma Trush, Oxford survivor and educator Five years ago, Emma Trush was a senior at Oxford High School when a student gunman opened fire in the building on Nov. 30, 2021, killing…

Emma Trush and Dr. Brandi Ansley As a professor at Central Michigan University, MEA member Brandi Ansley teaches aspiring educators from an “inside-out” perspective. For Emma Trush, whose post-traumatic stress threatened to derail her dreams, that made all the difference. Trush took her first class taught by Ansley at the beginning of her sophomore year, just 18 months after experiencing…