Good day NEA! Standing before you today is the daughter of Afro-Caribbean West Indian parents from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands — a mother who was a floor nurse and later a graduate of John Hopkins who became a public health administrator and a father who is an alumnus of Hampton University, an HBCU in Hampton, Virginia, and later with the GI Bill, an alumnus of Howard University Law School, now a retired judge emeritus. “Das who I fah.”
A saying I grew up with comes from my Dad who believes and still says, “Nothing is so complicated that it cannot be simplified by hard work,” and I thank God each day that I get to do this hard work. As someone in recent political history has said, “hard work is good work!”
So, who am I?
I’m an Afro-Caribbean West Indian woman from St. Thomas, V.I. who graduated from Charlotte Amalie High School at 16 years old, then attended Hampton University as a physics major on a music scholarship, played clarinet, became a section leader in the HU Marching Pirates, and performed in the Rose Bowl parade;
Who graduated from Hampton U with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics, then interned for two years at the NASA Langley Research Center in Langley, Virginia, in the field of unsteady aerodynamics where I created and ran computer programs for the wind tunnel calculations; not knowing that my path followed in the footsteps of Black women such as Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Goble Johnson, and Mary Jackson, the Hidden Figures;
Who got called out of programming & research into the field of teaching & learning and has been an Associate Professor of Mathematics for the past 25 years and will be starting my 26th year this fall semester;
Who stands on the shoulders and graves of so, so many who came before me and many others of my generation; the ancestors who took action for me, advocated for me at a time when basic rights were not granted to people who looked like me, “speak wid ah accent” like me, or wear their hair like me.
Who am I? My brothers, sisters, and kin, I am Teresa M. Hodge, your 2025 Higher Educator of the Year, and I will continue to fight, advocate, and act for the rights of all educators, but especially for our higher education professionals, and I humbly accept this recognition to represent higher education for the upcoming year. I will boldly and unapologetically shine the light of truth where there are lies and use my voice to bring awareness to and for higher ed issues across this nation.
May we all learn to build the same kind of resilience our ancestors did as we face of our current adversities; may we endeavor to build our power through allyship with our community partners, and may we continue to fight for the respect we deserve as professionals in our respective fields regardless of our classifications. We must remain true to who we are and NEVER EVER diminish our light and its brightness because how else can we light a path for those who will come behind us?
Before closing, I humbly ask, as the cat mom to seven rescues, that when adding a fur baby to your human family, please consider the option of adopting a rescue pet to clear the shelters and give these pets a loving “furever” home.
I close with the following words from Sam Cooke:
I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh, and just like the river I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gon’ come, oh yes it will
Then I go to my brother
And I say brother, help me please
But he winds up knocking me back down on my knees
Oooh there’ve been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gon’ come, oh yes it will
Thank you!
Media Contact
- Miguel Gonzalez, NEA Communications
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- Phone 202-491-9532
