The NEA awarded its highest honor, the Friend of Education Award, posthumously to Illinois Education Association (IEA) President Albert J. “Al” Llorens on July 5 at the 2026 NEA Representative Assembly in Denver. Llorens, who died on Sept. 25, 2025, at 73, was honored for his lifelong commitment to public education in Illinois, accomplishments as an IEA leader, and contributions to NEA members across the nation.
His widow, Wanda Llorens, accepted the award on his behalf.
The Friend of Education award recognizes individuals, organizations, or groups who have significantly improved American education on a national level. Past recipients have included U.S. presidents, a Department of Education secretary, a Supreme Court justice, members of Congress, governors, educators, civil rights leaders, journalists, and authors.
In her tribute, NEA President Becky Pringle said Llorens strongly believed that “even as you lead, you follow. Even as you set the course, you navigate it. He always found a way to help us know that an internal light lives within all of us, as a beacon of both challenges and opportunities. As a mentor, a trainer, and advocate, and unwavering believer in people, Al used his internal light to help others find theirs. We are so proud to recognize him with NEA’s highest honor.”
Llorens spent more than 30 years at Thornridge High School where he taught math and coached girls’ track and cross-country. Before that, he taught fourth-grade phonics and middle-school reading in Champaign and math and science in Kankakee and Chicago.
Llorens, an NEA member since 1985, was in his first term as president of the Illinois Education Association (IEA) when he died. Before he became IEA president, one of his proudest achievements was the IEA Ethnic Minority and Emerging Leadership Training (EMELT), which pioneered ways to cultivate a diverse pool of leaders capable of advancing IEA’s vision of racial and social justice.
In accepting the award, Wanda Llorens, herself a retired educator, said her husband was “a wonderful husband, father, and human being who, with a calm and thoughtful spirit, dedicated his life” to supporting educators.
Llorens “fought with all his might to make sure every teacher received fair wages, good working conditions and benefits commensurate with their education and experience,” she continued. “...And he always corrected me when I failed to acknowledge all the support personnel that made our accomplishments possible and for whom he worked.”
She added that her husband “understood that his job was to stand in for teachers and support personnel to make sure they were fairly treated” as they did the hard work of educating children. “Al believed that the job you did, your life’s work, mattered in this world and he fought for you every day of his life.”
Wanda Llorens joked that her husband smartly married a woman who, because she had been an educator, understood his commitment to IEA and NEA—even when it meant he fielded calls well into the night. “I really don’t know how my husband did all that he did, but I knew he didn’t need a nagging wife on top of it all and so I didn’t nag, not much, anyway,” she said.
A video tribute to Llorens emphasized that during his presidency of the IEA, six years as a member of the NEA Board of Directors, and decades of service as an RA delegate, “Al didn’t just represent educators. He stood with them in classrooms, in communities, in moments when public education needed an unwavering voice.”
