Update (4:50pm): The NEA has confirmed that John Wilson will retire from the national union in August. I’ll be writing a follow-up post later drawing on an interview I just had with him. Below is my original post:
John Wilson, who has served as the National Education Association’s executive director for a decade, is planning to retire in August, according to a blog post by Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency.
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel has named John Stocks, currently the union’s deputy executive director, to fill the post, Antonucci says.
I’ve put out a request to the NEA for confirmation and comment, but haven’t heard back yet.
Wilson made an unsuccessful run to become the NEA’s president in 1989, losing to Keith Geiger. At that time, he was the executive director of the North Carolina Association of Educators, a job he began in 1995. Before that, he was a lobbyist at the North Carolina union, and prior to that, taught special education for many years.
I’m afraid readers of the Teacher Beat will have to wait for Steve to return from his well-deserved holiday vacation to get analysis of Wilson’s impact at the NEA and the significance of the leadership change.
Here’s a brief biography from the NEA website.
As for John Stocks, before joining the NEA, he was the assistant executive director for public affairs at the Wisconsin Education Association Council.