Newly elected NEA-Alaska President Bill Bjork is a high school math teacher at the Career Education Center in Fairbanks.  He has taught successfully in Alaska for 27 years and is on leave from the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, where he has taught for 21 years.

            Bill grew up in Minnesota, where he earned a B.S. degree in math and education and a M.S. in curriculum and instruction and taught for six years.

But the Great Land was calling.  Bill and his wife, Debby, traveled to Alaska in the summers, hiked the mountains and fell in love with the Yukon River. In 1975 they traveled up the Haul Road to Prudhoe Bay with trucks carrying the 80-foot long loads of 48-inch pipe for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.  In the summer of 1977 Bill and Debby canoed nearly 1,000 miles on the Yukon River from Lake Bennett, British Columbia, to Fort Yukon, Alaska.  A teacher befriended them in Fort Yukon and introduced them to the superintendent of schools.  The superintendent asked if they were interested in teaching in Alaska, to which both replied no, they had good teaching jobs in Minnesota.  The superintendent said he had seats available on a plane leaving for Arctic Village the next day and suggested they ride along.  Just weeks later Bill and Debby moved to Arctic Village, where they taught for six years, Bill as the head teacher.
          
            In 1983 Bill and Debby shared their love for Alaska when they wrote the Interior and Backcountry portions of the Insight Guide to Alaska.  Helping stretch modest teacher salaries, they also wrote portions of several editions of Mexico on $20 a Day and Dollar-wise Guide to Canada.  Bill served for eight years in the U.S. Army National Guard and in 1978 received an honorable discharge as staff sergeant, E-6.

Bill has long been a respected leader in his profession. Seven years ago he launched the Career Education Center, a high school designed for older, at risk teens who have dropped out of school.  Located in the Fairbanks Community Food Bank, the Career Education Center has enjoyed great success and wonderful community support. Bill has served as head teacher, recommending staff for hire and taking care of administrative paperwork.  But he points out with pride that CEC is run collegially by its staff of master teachers.  In1999 Bill was named a British Petroleum Teacher of Excellence. 

At graduation time, the Career Education Center organizes a dinner at which the staff speaks personally about each student and presents each one with a donated plush toy.  The graduation ceremony for the Career Education Center is a poignant moment for students, staff and family members.  Bill is particularly proud that this year seven CEC graduates received full tuition scholarships to the University of Alaska under the Alaska Scholars program. 

Throughout his career Bill has participated in mathematics curriculum committees charged with developing curricula and selecting textbooks. He is a long time leader within NEA-Alaska and his local associations.  Years of service as a local president and board member were capped by six years of service (1998-2004) as Alaska’s sole representative to the NEA Board of Directors.

On July 8 Bill begins a two-year term as president of NEA-Alaska.  The National Education Association of Alaska is an organization of more than 13,000 teachers and education support professionals who are dedicated to providing an excellent public education for every child in Alaska.

You may email Bill at Bill.Bjork@neaalaska.org