‘Talks the Talk, Walks the Walk’: the VEA’s New President
November 13, 2024
November 13, 2024
By Samuel (Sam) L. Eure, Jr.
For most people, “the sky’s the limit” is just a casual expression, a way to offer encouragement. Not so for VEA’s new president, Carol Bauer, an articulate, effective advocate for public school students and educators who also happens to be a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy who has pilot training.
“The core values of the Air Force are Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do,” says Bauer, “and I can’t think of a better approach to the VEA presidency. My pledge to our members and to our students is that everything I do in this office will be done honestly, done for others, and done well.”
True leaders are forged by their experiences and, for years, Carol has demonstrated her inclusive leadership style and consensus-building abilities at just about every level of our union. She wants and seeks the knowledge and perspective of others, and has stopped me many times to make sure she understood an audience she’d be in front of or the participants in meetings and other gatherings. It is not about the simple sharing of information. It is about the gaining of understanding and its translation into action.
With all that, the most important things you need to know about Carol are her humility and selfless nature. There is no ‘I’ in Carol’s behavior or actions. She is modest in talking about herself. I am not. Long before she stepped into leadership roles, she was a mentor, a trainer, and a leader. As a mentor, she sees leadership potential and nourishes it. I should know, she mentored me. I followed her as the York Education Association President twice with a gap of 10 years in between. I eventually even followed her as a member of the VEA Board of Directors. She assists leaders at the local, state, and national level. There are few, if any, local presidents who have not referred to her experience.
She has served in almost every level of leadership in the VEA. She was president of the York Education Association, a member of the Colonial UniServ Council for over 20 years, elected to both the VEA and NEA Boards of Directors, chaired the National Read Across America Committee, taught in VEA and NEA’s Jumpstart programs, traveled to China as a NEA Foundation Fellow, served on the VEA and NEA Resolutions Committees, was twice elected VEA Vice President, and was a two-time delegate to the Education International World Congress.
And she still found time to be on two statewide education task forces, appointed to those positions by two different Virginia governors.
Even as she kept all those plates spinning, Carol continued to excel in the classroom, as well. A fourth grade teacher at Grafton Bethel Elementary in York County, she’s always been a standard-setter, the teacher parents want for their children. Because of her commitment to Read Across America, she consistently had a State Superintendent visit her class to read, and is also well-known for her Lego Team. In her striving for excellence, she also became one of the first National Board Certified Teachers in York County. She went on to receive VEA’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2016 and earned national recognition the following year as one of five national finalists for the Horace Mann National Excellence in Teaching Award.
There are times in life when all your preparations merge at just the right moment. That time is now for Carol. My Colonial UniServ colleagues and I have been privileged to be front-row witnesses to her efforts for more than 20 years, and we’re now proud to share her with the state.
She can be trusted; she epitomizes integrity. She values all our members and fights for equity for all. You’ll never have to question whose interests Carol is working for. She stands in solidarity with our education coalition partners and understands the need to build community. She’s taught me that the VEA is a family, that we take care of each other. If a local needs her assistance, she’ll be there.
Carol not only talks the talk, but she also walks it as well.
Sam Eure, a member of VEA-Retired, chair of Colonial UniServ, and a substitute teacher in Newport News, taught high school social studies in Hampton and York County for 25 years and also served on the VEA Board of Directors, as well as many other VEA committees.
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