Carolyn Doggett
CTA Executive Director Carolyn Doggett announced she will retire in June 2013, closing a 45-year career in public education.
A fourth-generation Californian and a fourth-generation teacher, Doggett began her career teaching first grade in Willits, Calif. She later taught high school English in Anchorage, Alaska, became president of the Anchorage Education Association, and then became president of NEA-Alaska, the NEA state affiliate. She sharpened her organizing skills lobbying the Alaska Legislature, and went on to work on California school board and legislative campaigns. She became CTA’s first female executive director in 1995.
Doggett says she is proudest of three major accomplishments: the historic CTA campaign in 2005 to defeat several harmful initiatives; enactment of the Quality Education Investment Act in 2006 to help schools of greatest need; and passage of Proposition 30 in November.
“After many challenges and so many victories, it seems like the right time to retire,” she says. “I will miss my colleagues and the everyday work on behalf of educators and the students they teach, but I will always be an advocate for public education and the teaching profession.”
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