In this article, Richard Lee Colvin, provides an uplifting history of the current vice president and next President of the National Education Association (NEA), Lily Eskelsen García, the first Hispanic head of the nation's largest union. Colvin describes Garcia as a powerful labor and political leader. Colvin describes NEA's beginning in 1857 by teachers and administrators as an advocate for public education, not a union, however in the late 1960s NEA endorsed the concept of collective bargaining. It is with this history under her belt that Garcia, a Utah elementary school teacher (1980-1989) and Utah's Teacher of the Year (1989), used her leadership skills to progress through the Utah Education Association (UEA) and the NEA with a focus on the "teacher" and the benefits they were due as they worked hard to educate children, but who were many times unrecognized and under-rewarded for their work. Garcia offers her own feelings about current educational policies that stress testing, accountability, and school choice, and the effects they are having on school children as well as teachers.