Humanities and the Arts HS, former Chapter Leader and Delegate
Camille Johnson Eterno has been teaching English at Humanities and the Arts since 2004. From 1997 to 2003, she was Chapter Leader at Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School, where she successfully defended many members against several anti-union administrators, who were subsequently reprimanded. One of her colleagues called her "chapter leader par excellence."
Having left Gateway to take a teaching job in Copiague, Long Island, Camille was disappointed with a lack of union activism. She returned to the city system after a year and was overwhelmingly elected as a UFT Delegate at here present school, Humanities and the Arts her present school. There she started the school's first chapter newsletter to keep members informed about what was occurring at Delegate Assemblies.
Camille, who is married ICE-TJC presidential candidate James Eterno, gave birth to a baby daughter last summer. Though on child care leave for a year, she continues to help UFT members (who call on her frequently) at her school and beyond.
MARTIN HABER
John Dewey HS, former Delegate
Martin Haber has been teaching Special Education and Humanities at Dewey for many years. He also continues to provide adjunct instruction through the UFT Teacher Center's Professional Development Program, training teachers on a wide variety of subjects since 1996. He served on the school's executive board for ten years, first as a delegate-at-large dealing with school-wide issues, then as a UFT Delegate attending and reporting back to the school board on citywide concerns. Now in his 25th year of teaching for the city school system, he stays committed to the vision of a progressive, rank-and-file responsive union, one that recognizes the centrality and historical example of activism and speaking truth to power.
LISA NORTH
PS3K, Chapter Leader
Lisa North has been a chapter leader and delegate for many years at PS 3, Brooklyn. She has taught for over 20 years and is currently teaching a first grade CTT class. Besides being an active member of her school community she has worked in numerous citywide campaigns over the years to improve the education of our students and thus also our working conditions. These include working to make sure the NYC receives its fair share of funding (CFE money) and making sure that our students and parents are informed about military recruitment in our public high schools, and working to highlight the need for more teachers of color in the DOE. Lisa has also been involved within the UFT, working on the High Stakes Testing Task Force, Mayoral Control Committee, the Social and Economic Justice Committee, and the Brooklyn UFT Parent Outreach Committee. Lisa is also currently active member in the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) fighting to stop the privatization of our schools.
SEUNG OK
William H. Maxwell HS, Delegate
Seung Ok has been teaching biology and physics at Maxwell for 13 years. During the course of the last academic year, he was astounded that a student in his school with senior credits was functionally illiterate and came to believe that some fundamental changes in education needed his attention.
Determined to find the root causes for such defects in the system, he joined GEM (the Grassroots Education Movement) and ran for UFT Delegate at Maxwell. At one of his first DA meetings, he voiced discontent with current UFT president Michael Mulgrew's decision not to let any of the delegates from closing schools address the assembly.
Seung has continued to speak out at DA meetings against the undemocratic practices of the union leadership, who he feels continually break their own UFT constitutional rules. He believes that until the day comes when the DA can actually vote against a resolution the UFT leadership wants passed, it will continue to function no better than a puppet body, as much as the PEP is for the mayor. He imagines a UFT where intimidation, fear, and dictatorial practices no longer prevent the true voices of thousands of teachers from being heard.
