Episode for October 17, 2021
Fed Ingram of AFT , Writer/Activist Maura Quint and Author/Columnist Michael Cohen Episode 456
36 Mins On Sept. 1, 2020,
Fedrick C. Ingram was elected secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, serving 1.7 million members, including pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; and nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Ingram is the immediate past president of the 140,000-member Florida Education Association (FEA). He was also an elected vice president of the AFT’s executive council.
Since becoming the AFT’s secretary-treasurer, Ingram has joined the executive committee of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department and the board of Union Plus, a member benefits organization founded by the AFL-CIO.
Ingram grew up in inner-city Miami, where he attended public schools. Pursuing his love of music, he attended Bethune-Cookman University on scholarship and became the first member of his family to earn a postsecondary degree, in music education.
He would go on to be a music teacher and band director in Miami-Dade public schools for 10 years. Fed is also an accomplished musician in his own right and has performed throughout the state and nationally as a saxophone soloist and conductor.
In 2006, he was named the Francisco R. Walker Miami-Dade County Teacher of the Year. He was also a finalist for the state of Florida Teacher of the Year Award in 2006.
In May 2013, he was elected president of the United Teachers of Dade, which represents employees of the fourth-largest school district in the nation. He held that post until 2015, when he was elected vice president of the FEA, where he became a bridge-builder and fearless advocate for public education, the joy of learning and the importance of the arts in education. In 2018, he won election as FEA president. Since then, he has been in frequent demand as a speaker, lecturer and presenter, and is recognized nationally for his workshops and presentations on community organizing and coalition building.
In May 2013, the Miami Herald’s Legacy magazine named Ingram as one of South Florida’s 50 most powerful black business leaders. He is also a recipient of the prestigious JM Family African-American Achievers Award, given to leaders who have exemplified excellence in their respective fields.
In addition to his bachelor’s degree from Bethune-Cookman, Ingram earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from Barry University. He also holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters awarded by Florida Memorial University.
He is married to Yvetta Ingram, and they have three children, all of whom have attended public schools.
46 Mins Maura Quint is a humor writer and activist whose work has been featured in publications such as McSweeneys and The New Yorker. She was named one of Rolling Stone’s top 25 funniest twitter accounts of 2016. When not writing comedy, Maura has worked extensively with non-profits in diverse sectors including political action campaigns, international arts collectives and health and human services organizations. She has never been officially paid to protest but did once find fifteen cents on the ground at an immigrants’ rights rally and wanted to make sure that had been disclosed. She was the co founder and executive director of TaxMarch.org And she recently began a new gig at the Americans for TAx Fairness campaign director
1:25 Michael A. Cohen is a regular contributor for The Boston Globe on national politics and foreign affairs. He is also the author of “American Maelstrom: The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division.” Michael has written for dozens of news outlets, including as a columnist for the Guardian and Foreign Policy and he is the US Political Correspondent for the London Observer. He previously worked as a speechwriter at the US State Department and has been a lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
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