NYSUT delegates re-elect Melinda Person as NYSUT president
Delegates to the New York State United Teachers’ Representative Assembly on Saturday re-elected Melinda Person to a three-year term as president of the more than 700,000-member union.
“Every single day, across the state, NYSUT members prove something different is possible,” said President Person in her speech Friday before delegates. “When we come together, we don’t just respond to challenges: we change outcomes. And we do that through action.”
In the past three years, Person has led critical victories for our students and our members, including: getting the state to fulfill its promise to fully fund Foundation Aid and fighting back proposed cuts to Foundation Aid just one year later; banning cellphones from our classrooms – becoming the largest state in the nation to ensure bell-to-bell distraction-free learning; championing the passage of truly universal school meals so that no child in New York goes to school hungry; stopping a wanton expansion of corporate charter schools in New York City; returning teacher evaluations (APPR) to local control; getting the biggest pension reform in 20 years passed into state law to lower the Final Average Salary calculation for Tiers 5 & 6 members; increasing funding for SUNY, CUNY, community colleges and universities; saving SUNY Downstate; establishing the first-ever maximum temperature in school buildings and indoor facilities; protecting kids on social media sites with the SAFE for Kids Act and New York Child Data Protection Act; and electing numerous public education champions, such as NYSUT member U.S. Rep. John Mannion, to state, local and federal offices.
Person has served as NYSUT president since 2023. She joined NYSUT in 2006 and served as the union’s executive and political director from 2019-2023. Prior to that, Person worked in the governor’s Budget Office and the state Assembly. She and her wife, Kelly, have four children.
In addition to re-electing Person, delegates also re-elected Jaime Ciffone as executive vice president, Ron Gross as second vice president and J. Philippe Abraham as secretary-treasurer; and voted in members of NYSUT’s Board of Directors.
