Roughly 6,000 educators from around the nation gathered in Denver, Colo., on July 3-7, for the 2026 National Education Association Annual Meeting and 105th Representative Assembly (RA).
The RA is the world’s largest democratic body and the top decision-making body for NEA’s nearly 3 million members. Every year, local unions elect and send thousands of delegates from around the U.S. to draft, debate, and adopt policies that set the course for the future of the Association.
That future was front and center as delegates, in addition to debating new policies and approving a new budget, elected a new leadership team to direct the Association over the next few years.
Delegates also met Read Across America’s new Ambassador (WNBA legend and Ohio Hall of Famer Helen Darling), and celebrated the 60thanniversary of the historic merger between NEA and the American Teachers Association. (NEA recently named the ATA an NEA legacy organization, honoring its pivotal role in advancing educational opportunity and strengthening the teaching profession.) They also heard from some of the nation’s most celebrated educators, and took part in two Days of Learning to prepare to organize and take action for public schools and democracy when they return home.
In her final RA keynote address, NEA President Becky Pringle, who is concluding the second of her three-year terms as president, told the delegates that leading the NEA has been the “honor of my life.” But the future, she said, “the power, and the responsibility rests with you. ...I need you to move forward, in union together. Educators are the defenders of public education and the heartbeat of democracy.”
Pringle praised educators across the nation for their activism and resilience in the face of a relentless continuous assault on their profession, their students, and their unions.
“You have stood in your power,” Pringle told the delegates. “I have never been more proud to call myself an educator. Across this country, I see you doing what I asked you to: You are fighting back. You are fighting forward when others have given in.”
'We Have A Lot Ahead of Us’
In her address to the RA, NEA Executive Director Kim Anderson paid tribute to Pringle, noting her superb leadership on member organizing, racial and social justice, community school expansion and professional learning. “In every pillar of our union, thanks to you, we have gotten stronger.”
But “we have a lot ahead of us,” Anderson cautioned. “Urgent, important, and life changing.”
The stakes couldn’t be higher: protecting democracy, strengthening public education, and defeating the forces who want to gut schools and set them up as centers for profit.
Elections, as always, are pivotal. “There are ninety million of our fellow Americans who didn't vote in 2024,” Anderson told the delegates. “We have to create a movement to win up and down the ballot, so we have pro-public-education, pro-worker majorities at every single level — local, state, and national.”
Outstanding Educators in the Spotlight
On the RA’s third day, delegates heard a rousing and hopeful address from Stanley 'Ric' Calhoun, the 2026 NEA Education Support Professional of the Year.
“For too long, wealth and power have been concentrated in the hands of a few, while working people like us—the very backbone of our communities—are told to settle for less,” Calhoun, a campus supervisor in Kent, Washington, said. “When we organize—when we harness the collective strength of the largest labor union in the country—we are unstoppable.”
In his address on July 5, Leon Smith, the 2026 National Teacher of the Year, said educators can create a sense of belonging for every student and inspire them to go out and create a better world.
“Education must remain a powerful promise that students can see themselves in, and the essential work of NEA members plays a key role in making sure all students are seen and valued,” Smith said.
NEA Higher Educator of the Year Clinton Smith, a professor of special education at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told the delegates on July 6 that the honor NEA has bestowed on him is more of a “challenge” than a “compliment.”
That challenge, Smith said, “is to keep fighting. To bring more people into this work. And to make sure the next 30 years look better than the first.”
In perhaps the RA’s most poignant moment, NEA awarded its highest honor, the Friend of Education Award, posthumously to Illinois Education Association President Albert J. “Al” Llorens, who passed away last September.
In accepting the award, Wanda Llorens, said her husband “dedicated his life” to supporting educators. “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.”
A Day of Learning and Power
This year’s RA reserved two days to train delegates with campaign strategies, skills, tools, and resources to protect and strengthen public education in their communities. During the second annual “Days of Learning and Organizing for Power,” delegates learned how to use their collective voice to create change, be it at the bargaining table, at the statehouse, in the media, or even during the own campaign for public office.
Both days offered a wide variety of 90-minute sessions, covering topics such as Safe Zones for students, fighting disinformation, and how corporate tax breaks undermine public education and other critical services.
Electing a New Leadership Team
With the end of Becky Pringle’s second term as NEA president, delegates at this year’s RA were tasked with electing a new slate of leaders to take the Association into the future. When the votes were counted on July 6, delegates elected Princess R. Moss as president, Noel Candelaria as vice president and Robert Varela Rodriguez as secretary-treasurer. The new leaders will assume office on September 1.
Nationally recognized for her leadership on public education, educator advocacy, and racial and social justice, Moss is currently serving as NEA vice president and, previously, as secretary-treasurer. She is a past president of the Virginia Education Association, where she helped advance collective bargaining rights and increase investment in public education.
“I step into this role inspired by the dedication of the millions of educators who show up every day for their students and communities,” said President-elect Moss. “I look forward to building on our union's proud legacy and working alongside our members to ensure every student, in every ZIP code, has access to a high-quality public education."
A special education teacher and former teacher's aide from El Paso, Texas, Candelaria, has helped members build collective and political power to advance racial, social, and economic justice for students, educators, and communities. He has served as a local president, state president, and is the current NEA secretary-treasurer.
NEA’s new secretary-treasurer Robert Varela Rodriguez is a special education teacher in California’s San Bernardino City Unified School District. First elected to the NEA Executive Committee in 2018, he previously served on the NEA Board of Directors, Budget Committee, and the California Teachers Association Board of Directors.
In addition to these three leaders, the delegates also elected two NEA Executive Committee members. Cecily Myart-Cruz, an elementary and middle school teacher from Los Angeles and president of the United Teachers Los Angeles, and Shannon McCann, a middle school special education teacher from Seattle, Washington, will both serve three-year terms.
