Eskelsen García began her career as a cafeteria worker, and then as an aide to a special education teacher. At this teacher's suggestion, she went back to school to pursue a teaching degree.[5] She worked her way through the University of Utah on scholarships, student loans, and as a starving folk singer, graduating magna cum laude in elementary education and later earning her master's degree in instructional technology.[6]
Teaching
In 1980, Eskelsen García went to work teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth grades[2][better source needed] at Orchard Elementary in the Granite School District in Utah. In 1989, she was named Utah Teacher of the Year.[4] Later, while in union leadership positions, she taught homeless children in a single classroom[4] at Salt Lake City's homeless shelter and the Christmas Box House Children's Shelter, a kindergarten through 6th grade one-room public school serving hard-to-place foster children in Salt Lake City.[2][better source needed]
In 1996, she was elected to the NEA executive committee.[8] In 2002, she was elected NEA Secretary-Treasurer with 78 percent of the vote, the first time a four-candidate race was decided on the first ballot.[5] She served two three-year terms as treasurer, under NEA president Reg Weaver.[8] On July 4, 2008, she was elected NEA vice-president,[8] and she was re-elected at the 2011 NEA Representative Assembly with over 90% of the vote.[9] At the 2014 NEA Representative Assembly in Denver, Colorado, she was elected NEA President[10][11] and served as NEA president until September 1, 2020, when she was succeeded by Becky Pringle.
In 1998, she was the first Hispanic person to be chosen as the Democratic Party's nominee for a U.S. congressional seat in Utah, raising almost $1 million,[7] and receiving 45% of the vote, ultimately losing to incumbent Merrill Cook in the general election.[4]
In November 2015, Eskelsen Garcia received backlash for comments she made during the Campaign for America's Future Awards Gala. During a speech, she said, "We diversify our curriculum instruction to meet the personal individual needs of all of our students, the blind, the hearing impaired, the physically challenged, the gifted and talented, the chronically tarded and the medically annoying." Several organizations, including the American Association of People with Disabilities and National Down Syndrome Society, called on her to apologize and asked for more open dialogue regarding students with disabilities.[18] Eskelsen Garcia apologized on her blog, saying she had misspoken while trying to be funny; she had meant to say "chronically tardy", and by "medically annoying" she had meant those who use their own problems to purposefully disrupt class, rather than those with medical issues.[19]
After the inauguration of Donald Trump, she described him and the nominee for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos as having an agenda to "profitize, privatize and ... throw a middle-class child into the street saying, 'Let them eat for-profit vouchers.'"[22] More than 1 million emails opposing DeVos' nomination were generated through NEA's online form.[23] Eskelsen Garcia continued to oppose the administration's budget priorities in 2018, calling the proposed 13.5% cut in education spending a "wrecking ball" aimed at public schools.[24]
In 2020, Eskelsen Garcia was instrumental in the NEA's endorsement of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden in the primary and general elections. However, some union members stated their voices weren't heard, as "the rank and file were not asked who they wanted to support".[25]
After high school, Lily married Ruel Eskelsen, with whom she had two children before his death on March 18, 2011.[3] She is currently married to graphic artist Alberto Garcia, with whom she published the 2014 book, Rabble Rousers: Fearless Fighters for Social Justice.[29]
