The most recent higher education addition to the NEA Board of Directors, support staffer Rosemary Riley, began her campaign for the two-year ESP at-large seat four days before the election at the NEA Representative Assembly in Atlanta.
A bookkeeper at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and president of the University Staff Association there, Riley was encouraged by her ESP colleagues nationally to run for the position. She waged her whirlwind campaign with the support of the entire Massachusetts delegation, some of whom drove her from hotel to hotel to speak at state caucus meetings.
Riley spoke to 17 state delegations. On the last day, her drivers were so stymied by traffic around Atlanta's huge July 4th road race that she set off on foot to meet with Connecticut and Missouri.
"When I told the Connecticut delegation I climbed over a construction fence to get into their hotel, they said I had their votes," says Riley, who's now looking forward to her first Board of Directors meeting in the fall.
"We've been well-represented," notes Riley. "The faculty have been great to us. But it's important that a higher ed support person be there first-hand."
Says Riley: "I believe I bring a different voice. I'm a bridge builder."
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