For More Information:
NEA Communications: 202 822-7200

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 5, 2002

News Release

NEA Elects Two to Executive Committee

Ohio and Maryland Teachers Chosen for Top Association Posts

Dallas - Mike Billirakis, a 30-year teacher from Pickerington, Ohio, and Marsha Smith, a third-generation educator from Olney, Md., spent the Fourth of July celebrating their election to the National Education Association (NEA) Executive Committee.

Billirakis, who is completing the one-year Executive Committee term he won last July, begins his new three-year term Sept. 1. During the NEA?s Representative Assembly being held here, the Perry (Lake County) High School social studies teacher received the highest number of votes - 4,677 or 54.91 percent ?- Wednesday in a four-way race to fill two seats.

The second seat was decided in a run-off election yesterday. The determined Smith, who heads the physical education department and serves as a team leader at Earle B. Wood Middle School in Rockville, Md., didn?t give up when she lost her bid for an Executive Committee seat to Billirakis in a run-off last year. This year, Smith defeated Ignacio Salinas Jr. with 51.7 percent of the ballots cast. ?I?m looking forward to being a part of NEA?s new leadership and helping make a difference for children and public education,? says Smith.

Billirakis, who has been active in the NEA since 1972, is eager to continue his Executive Committee work. ?I had a wonderful year,?? he says. ?Education is the solution to America?s social and economic problems. And I?m convinced that the future of our children - all our children - depends on public education.? Billirakis, who served three terms as president of the Ohio Education Association, was at the helm of OEA when it challenged the Cleveland voucher program, recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. This Youngstown State graduate, a current member of the board of directors of the State Teachers? Retirement System, lives in Pickerington with his wife Valerie. Their daughters, Christine and Cynthia, are students at Ohio State University.

Smith, who has spent 30 years championing the cause of public education, followed in the footsteps of her grandmother, mother, and father. But the family?s involvement in public education doesn?t stop there. Smith?s husband, Reynauld, teaches in Washington, D.C., and their son, Husan, is a special education teaching assistant in the Montgomery County system. ?We became educators because we wanted to work with students and change the future,? says Smith, a 32-year NEA member. ?I think with my skills and my experience, I?ll be able to make a difference.?

The NEA Executive Committee, which has nine members, includes three executive officers elected Wednesday. President-Elect Reg Weaver, a middle school science teacher from Harvey, Ill., finishing his second term as NEA?s vice president, won with 65 percent of the vote; former secretary-treasurer Dennis Van Roekel of Phoenix was uncontested in his bid for NEA vice president, and Lily Eskelsen of Utah was elected secretary-treasurer with 75 percent of the vote.

The NEA?s Representative Assembly, attended by close to 9,000 delegates from across the country, ends today.

# # #
The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.