For more than 25 years, Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins has been an active member in the Detroit Federation of Teachers. She started her career as a first grade teacher at Spain Elementary & Middle School in 1997. Upon completion of a Master’s Degree in counseling and the timely retirement of Spain’s counselors, Lakia was able to obtain a counseling position at Spain and continue advocating and building relationships with students, families, and staff while leveraging support from stakeholders in the community in which she loved. Lakia recalls the anxiety of walking the picket line in the strike of 1999 and the excitement of delivering Spain Schools’ ballots in the election of officers to the DFT office, which formerly stood next to Dittrich Furs on Third Avenue. Lakia has always provided support to the DFT at the building level as the Building Representative, Alternate, and Union Committee.

In 2014, Lakia was elected to her first term on the DFT Executive Board. Since then, Lakia has served as both Vice President and Executive Vice President of the DFT. With the onset of the 2023-2025 biennium, Lakia is humbled, privileged and blessed to be elected as the 9th President of the DFT. Professionally, Lakia is honored to represent over 3000 of the world’s best educators and support staff.

In Lakia's family, education and unionism have a long history. Her mother was the first black teacher at St. Anne Catholic School in Southwest Detroit for 7 years (now closed). She ultimately retired as a proud MEA member from Mount Clemens Public Schools after 24 years of teaching both kindergarten and first grade. Lakia’s father, after 40 years of work, retired as a proud Chrysler Jefferson North Assembly Plant employee. Her uncles were Sleeping Car Porters, and she has three UAW proud brothers who worked for each of the Big Three—Ford, Chrysler, and GM—with one becoming a union steward for the Bakery and Confectionery Union at Hostess Cake. Her aunts were educators as well. Currently, Lakia’s sister teaches 1st grade in Maryland, her goddaughter is a second year teacher in Tennessee, while her nephew is a professor in Texas. “The love of learning and teaching runs in the family”, claims Lakia.

A lifelong Detroiter—born, raised, living and working in Detroit, Lakia is an outspoken advocate for social, educational and economic justice. Lakia has been featured on many media outlets. Most notable are her appearances on C-SPAN during the AFL-CIO Raising Wages Summit, AFT “Life Inside Detroit Public Schools”, NBC News Learn, and HBO Real Sports.

Lakia is a Mount Clemens High School alumna. She graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Science Education, and Oakland University with a Master of Arts in Counseling. She holds Principal Certification from Lamar University, and is currently working toward her doctoral degree in Leadership at the American College of Education.

Lakia, who still qualifies herself as a newlywed, shares her home with her amazing husband Michael and their energetic eight-year-old son Noah.

Jason Posey has been an active member of the Detroit Federation of Teachers for nearly 20 years. In 2003, he began his career at Coleman A. Young Elementary School where he taught second and third grades and was elected Alternate Building Representative. Jason also served as Alternate and Building Representative at Noble Elementary-Middle School for many years.

In 2014, Jason was elected to his first of five terms as an AFT Convention Delegate. Later that same year, he was elected to serve the first of five terms on the DFT Executive Board. Beginning in 2019, he was selected to serve as one of DFT’s inaugural Organizing Fellows. The organizing fellows program has increased the DFT membership as well as built capacity within the union by training and assisting building representatives and our rank and file members.

Unionism is deeply rooted in Jason’s family. His mother was a DFT member for 21 years prior to becoming a district administrator. His grandfather was a proud UAW-Chrysler member for over 30 years. His grandmother was a member of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union. His aunts were members of the Communication Workers of America; one of them serving as shop steward.

Jason is honored to be voted as one of DFT Vice-Presidents and humbled to be selected by the DFT Executive Board to serve as Executive Vice-President.

Professionally, Jason is prouder of nothing more than his advocacy and representation of the members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers.

Jason is a graduate of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts in Elementary Education from the University of Michigan. 

Jason shares his home with his wife, Jessica, who is also an educator and his four year old daughter Lauren.

The DFT was proud to be a part of this special event: the film premiere at the Detroit Institute of Arts about the life of Rosa Parks.  After the screening AFT National President, Randi Weingarten, was part of a special conversation  moderated by the film’s executive producer Soledad O’Brien with Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State, the film’s directors Yoruba Richen and Johanna Hamilton, the book's author, Dr. Jeanne Theoharis and Lonnie McCauley, Rosa Parks’ grandnephew. 

The leadership team of the DFT, Officers, Executive Board Members and Trustees, recently participated  in a retreat. Wearing "red for ed" is one way they demonstrated our union solidarity. The participants went over the roles, responsibilities and expectations of serving as leaders of the union. 

From the DFT Election Committee, here is the official list of candidates for the upcoming election of one (1) Executive Board member and three (3) Election Committee members. It is possible more names will be added to the list once the grievance process, as outlined in the 2023 Calendar is completed.

Executive Board (one vacancy)                                                                                    

• Gavin Buckley
• Stephen Conn
• Rachele Green
• Kwesi Matthews
• Kimberly L. Mitchell

Election Committee (three vacancies)

• Cheryl Constantino
• Hope Gibson
• Theodosia Gulley
• Tamika Merchant
• Jacqueline Robinson
• Queen Watkins

My name is Angela, and I’m writing to you as a high school student at Cass Tech, and a member of Congress of Communities in southwest Detroit and the 482Forward Youth Organizing Collective. You’re invited to the Grand Opening of our Youth-Led Art Exhibition: Your Brain on School, taking place Saturday, February 11th 4-8pm in southwest Detroit.

It's important for you and Detroit's educators to see how students truly experience our schools. Over 200 youth from across the city have contributed to an immersive art project highlighting the impact of stress, over-surveillance and lack of resources on

The DFT sends its congratulations to three of our members who recently received awards at the 9th annual Champions of Education, DPSCD Teachers and Leaders of the Year gala. We are proud of these union members:

• Candice Jackson, a third-grade math and science Master teacher at Mann Learning Community, Teacher of the Year Award
• N’Shan Robinson, counselor, Mumford High School , DFT Instructional Support Staff of the Year Award
• Natassia Szpaichler, ESE teacher, John R. King Academic and Performing Arts Academy, Rookie Teacher of the Year Award

This annual celebration is held by the district, in collaboration with the DPS Foundation. 

The Election Committee has announced the 2023 election for one (1) executive board vacancy and three (3) election committee members. The executive board vacancy is a partial term (March 2023-January 2025) and the election committee are the full two year terms (April 2023-March 2025). The duties of the Election Committee are outlined in the 2023 Election Committee Guidelines document. Please use this nomination form for either executive board or election commitee. A member must be in good standing and cannot run for two positions. As outlined in the 2023 Spring Election calendar the nominations open today. Voting will take place in person at the March general membership meeting. For any other questions, please reach out to the Election Committee at dft231ec@gmail.com. Please allow them time to respond as they are busy teaching and working during the school day.

You are invited you to a celebration of The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks on the anniversary of her birthday, Saturday, February 4th, 2023. Please join us for a screening of the first full-length documentary about the life and legacy of Rosa Parks, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. After the film, stay for a special conversation moderated by the film’s executive producer Soledad O’Brien with Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State, Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, the film’s directors Yoruba Richen and Johanna Hamilton, the book's author, Dr

It is time to say farewell to Terrence Martin, who has stepped away from his role as President of the DFT. He has been a participating member of Local 231 since his first days of teaching, back in 1998, when he began teaching elementary school with DPS. In his second year with the district, he was elected as building representative and has gone on to be actively involved with the union ever since. He was elected as DFT treasurer, then hired to work in the union office with job duties including labor relations administrator, political action, community engagement and negotiations. These skills served him well when he was named as executive vice president in 2015. He ran for President in 2018 and 2020, winning both elections. He will not be far away from DFT members as he is currently the secretary-treasurer of the state federation and is one of the national vice presidents for AFT. You will see him  out and about in the community as he continues to be involved in many organizations such as the Michigan Democratic Party, the Black Leadership Advisory Council with Governor Whitmer and the Michigan Education Justice Coalition. His legacy of doing what's right and what's fair for students, their families, educators and the community will not be forgotten. Terrence has been an advocate for social, economic and education justice for his entire career and that will not stop. We wish him all the best as he pursues other opportunities.