PSEA is a community of education professionals who make a difference in the lives of students every day.
Voice: November 2017
Would you go to a lawyer who isn’t a member of the bar association? Would you go to a doctor who isn’t a member of the American Medical Association?
So why then, asks Elizabeth Brewer, would you want a teacher who isn’t part of the premier professional associations, PSEA and NEA?
Brewer spent 45 years in public education as a “home economics’’ teacher and elementary school counselor before retiring at the end of the 2015-16 school year from the Warrior Run School District, Union County. She immediately joined PSEA-Retired and this past summer attended her first Retired School at the Gettysburg Summer Leadership Conference.
“It has been my philosophy since college to be a professional,’’ Brewer said. “Part of being a professional is to belong to professional associations. When I was at Mansfield University, I belonged to Student PSEA. When I was a home economics teacher, I belonged to state and national home economics associations, and so on.’’
Despite her long involvement with PSEA, Brewer said she really stepped things up about 15 years ago after going to an Association function and hearing a retiree talk about the formative years of collective bargaining for educators.
“He talked about the importance of today’s members picking up and doing what they had done,’’ she said. “I said to myself, ‘you need to get going.’’’
Brewer became chair of her local’s Ethics Committee, and she later served as a member of the Pennsylvania Professional Standards and Practices Commission. She attended Northeastern Region meetings, Gettysburg, the NEA-RA, and the PSEA House of Delegates.
Brewer hit the ground running as a first-year member of PSEA-Retired in 2016-17 and is working to encourage retirees who aren’t members to join so they can advocate for issues affecting retirees and current educators.
She also wants to help build camaraderie through different generations of PSEA members.
“We need to use all of our strengths,’’ Brewer said. “We need to remember that PSEA is not just a building in Harrisburg, but rather all of us working together to provide the best education for our commonwealth’s children and their families.’’
