CSU-UPI Candidate Biography
Deborah Lynch is a COE Assistant Professor and elected member of the CSU-UPI Executive Board, House of Delegates and a Convention Delegate. Lynch has a long history of union activism and leadership. As as COE UPI rep, Lynch has represented members in grievance hearings and before the Ethics Officer. She taught for CPS for 20 years-a CTU Delegate for 11. She worked for AFT for 8 years-an AFT Shop Steward for 3, even representing grievants in hearings before Albert Shanker. She was CTU President, IFT/AFT VP for 3 years (2001-04) representing members, ensuring contract enforcement, lobbying elected officials, and negotiating the 2004-2007 CTU contract.
Lynch is committed to building a strong union, ensuring members' voice, and protecting member rights. Her goals for CSU-UPI include building Union solidarity, aggressively enforcing the contract, revitalizing UPI's department leadership structure, and ensuring member voice in promoting pro-Union and pro-higher education legislation and policies.
Employment History
Assistant Professor of Education, Graduate Studies
Chicago State University, Graduate Programs in Education Department, August 2011-present
Faculty Program Coordinator, Curriculum & Instruction;
Faculty Sponsor, Future Educators Association
Co-Chair, Center for Urban Research and Education (CURE)
Teacher/Department Chair/Case Manager
1995-2001, Marquette Elementary School, Chicago IL
2004-2011, Gage Park High School, Chicago, IL
§ Special Education Case manager, 2 years; Department Chair, 3 years
§ Teach English/ Reading; certification in supervision/instruction
§ Creator and faculty sponsor, Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program
Teacher Union Leadership
§ 2001-2004 President, Chicago Teachers Union
CEO of $25 million operation; oversaw 75 professionals and support staff; collective bargaining enforcement; lobbying and work with the media, community groups to promote public education
Academic Dean
2005-2011 JBV (Jacqueline B. Vaughan) Graduate School for Teacher Leadership
Administered all academic programming; recruited faculty and students; developed curriculum; program evaluation
Online Course Developer
Summer-Fall 2005 Kaplan University
§ Create a course on children with behavior disorders
§ Taught online courses
Adjunct Professor
1996-1999 University of Illinois & St. Xavier University, Chicago, IL
§ Teach graduate courses in educational leadership and special education
§ Supervise master’s degree cohort students
Director, Educational Issues/Professional Development Specialist
§ 1983-92 American Federation of Teachers, Washington D.C.
Research and develop professional development training programs
Present training programs and provide technical assistance to local offices
§ 1992-1995 Chicago Teachers Union Professional Development Director
Domestic Violence Prevention
Founding Board Member, B.E.L.A. (Barbara Ellen Lynch Associates) Charities, 1995-present
Hotline Volunteer, Crisis Center for South Suburbia, 2007-present
Board Member, Crisis Center for South Suburbia, December 2012-present
40-Hour Illinois Training and Certified Illinois Domestic Violence Professional
Education
§ B.S., Education, Western Illinois University
§ M.S., Special Education, Chicago State University
§ Ph.D., Public Policy Analysis, University of Illinois-Chicago
Publications
“Talking to Students about Ferguson”, with Crystal Laura, Black History Bulletin, Volume 78, Number 1, 2015.
Book Chapter “Teacher Leadership in Implementing STEM Instruction”, Nova Publishers, 2014
“Why Does the Public Hate Us?” Educational Leadership, February, 2014.
An Open Letter to President Obama: Chicago Teachers Speak Out on Urban Education, NCPEA Press, 2013
Labor of Love: One Chicago Teacher’s Experience, IUniverse.com, 2000
The Medically Fragile Child, American Federation of Teachers, Washington D.C., 1991
The Goal of Critical Thinking: From Educational Ideal to Educational Reality, American Federation of Teachers, Washington D.C., 1986
“Teaching Critical Thinking in the Classroom,” American Educator, Spring 1985
“Classroom Stress and Teacher Burnout,” Phi Delta Kappan, December 1979
Deborah Lynch: UrbanTeachers Speak Out
A personal account of one teacher's journey through the labyrinth that is urban public education. While claiming to need teachers meeting the highest of intellectual and professional standards, the educational bureaucracy really demands bureaucrats who execute decisions, not professionals who make decisions. The teacher whose life is at the center of this book, turns, surprisingly, to her union to reclaim what she believes to be the legacy of her profession. Thus, begins a parallel journey into the inner workings of the teachers union movement. She finds another contradiction as compelling as the first: Does the teachers union represent "workers" or "professionals? Is it to focus strictly on bread and butter issues or are professional issues also its concern--even its obligation? Written by someone who knows both the school system and the union from the inside out, this book asks the tough questions, explodes the erroneous myths, and exposes the conflicting contradictions in public education and in its union movement. Most of all, however, it describes the enormous stakes that await the decision that the teachers themselves have to make. It comes down to one critical question: Are they workers or are they professionals?