A new leadership team has taken office at the Oklahoma Education Association.
Katherine Bishop has been elected OEA’s 98th president after serving six years as vice president and Norman’s Cari Elledge is now serving as vice president. They took office on July 3.
Former president Alicia Priest recently completed her second and final term.
Bishop is a National Board Certified Teacher in Exceptional Needs. She spent most of her 23-year classroom career as an exceptional needs educator in Putnam City Public Schools, providing moderate to intensive services to elementary students.
In 2000, Bishop was appointed to the National Education Association’s IDEA Special Education Resource Cadre. She co-chaired the Exceptional Needs Standards Committee for National Board for Professional Teaching.
In 2010 Katherine was honored with the Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence Award, the highest honor of the NEA Foundation.
Cari Elledge is a fifth grade teacher from Norman, Okla., with 15 years of experience in education. Most recently she served as the full-time release president of the Professional Educators of Norman.
After graduating from El Reno High School, Elledge earned a bachelor’s in elementary education and a master’s in instructional leadership and academic curriculum from the University of Oklahoma.
She served two terms as zone director for Southwest B on OEA’s Board of Directors and six years as chair of the Communications Committee.
As a teacher leader in Norman, Elledge helped form a cadre of leaders fully trained in the Marzano model of teacher/leader evaluation. She trained members across the state on NEA’s Degrees Not Debt program and frequently presented professional development sessions on How to Effectively Communicate/Lobby Your Legislators.
