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Michael Marks, a high school dramatic arts and debate teacher from Hattiesburg,
Miss., was re-elected in July 2004 to his second three-year term on the National Education Association (NEA) Executive Committee, the nine-member governing body that oversees the 3.2-million-member Association.
The son of two public school teachers, Marks boasts a long and rich history of contribution to education and the arts. He most recently served as president of the Mississippi Association of Educators (MAE), where he successfully advocated a 38 percent salary increase for teachers the largest in state history as well as passage of the first Fair Dismissal Act for educators.
A 28-year teaching veteran, Marks previously served as chair of the Mississippi affiliate’s student program and on the MAE board of directors. He is a former Mississippi Teacher of the Year (1988) who has received national honors, including Disney’s Outstanding Teacher of the Performing Arts Award in 1995 and the Milken National Educator Award in 1994.
In addition, Marks’ career highlights include a choir performance at the White House in 1987, serving as the U.S. representative to the International Theatre Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1996, and leading the Hattiesburg High School debate team to 13 consecutive state titles. He is especially proud of being the national finance chair for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the organization charged with establishing what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do and which oversees the rigorous process through which teachers become board certified.
Marks, a published playwright and author of the nationally acclaimed docudrama, The Katrina Project: Hell and High Water, continues his work as the drama and debate teacher at Hattiesburg High School, and is a member of the State 4-H Advisory Council, the National Forensic League, and the Mississippi Arts Commission. He also serves on the Steering Committee of The National Partnership of the Arts.
He received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi and lives in Hattiesburg.
The NEA Executive Committee comprises the three NEA officers plus six members elected at large by the nearly 10,000 member Representative Assembly. | 