Among the fantastic professional development workshops and general sessions that were offered at the 2023 CCA Spring Conference, such as advanced bargaining, building a bargaining campaign to increase member engagement and learning about your member benefits, the conference was filled with honoring changemakers across the state and electing your new CCA board members. 

Members across the state shared their stories on what or who inspired them to get involved with their union, their reasons for attending the conference and their feelings about their work being honored. These are some of their stories: 

Jean Proppe, Faculty Association of Rancho Santiago Community College District

“There is so much going on with part-time faculty at the state level, and we are in the process of just starting the healthcare part of it. “I wanted to learn as much as I can from the people who have been doing it,” said Jean Proppe, executive board member and part-time faculty representative for the Faculty Association of Rancho Santiago Community College District (FARSCCD). When asked who or what inspired Proppe to be involved in the union, Proppe said, “Two former executives of our local helped me at a time when I was having some difficulties, and I just realized how important being part of a union is. Part-timers in particular really need someone in those meetings to speak their voice and be a phone call away if they need to call me. It’s important to be part of the union.” Proppe teaches music at Santiago Canyon College.

Cindy Carney, Calbright Faculty Association

Cindy Carney, CFA President First-time attendee Cindy Carney, who is the president of the Calbright Faculty Association (CFA), wants to make sure that her brand-new faculty union is being represented the way it is supposed to be.

“Learning that we have a voice and being able to do that [use voice] has been really inspirational for me.”

CFA received a membership award for the chapter with the Largest Percentage Increase of Full-Time Members.

Martha Villareal, San Joaquin Delta College Faculty Association

“One of the things we worked on was to create equity task forces, and our union supported that. What a difference it has made on our campus to be able to have our voices heard, our collective voices heard, but at the same time, we all meet the needs of our students – our student constituents,” said Martha Villareal, who teaches business and law at San Joaquin Delta College. Villareal is the recipient of the CCA BIPOC Award in Honor of Mary Ann Pacheco.

Jesus Gutierrez, Citrus College Faculty Association

When asked what made CCA board member Jesus Gutierrez get involved in his union, Gutierrez said, “We always get involved because we have bad actors on the other side, and so I felt that I would be able to play my position, be able to make my local stronger, and then the advocacy efforts that we all need to do – we all play a part and I just want to do my piece.” Gutierrez is a We Honor Ours (WHO) award recipient.

Deglow (left) with her husband John (right). Attribution: Kristen O’Meara Photography

Annette Deglow, WHO State award recipient and president of the Los Rios Teachers Association, encountered challenges when she first started teaching at the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) decades ago. Her inspiration to be active in her union came about because the district took away her job. “They said as a woman your financial needs and responsibilities are such that you didn’t need the job. And that was enough to motivate me. I had previously challenged the maternity policy at SCUSD when I first started teaching. If you were six months pregnant, you had to quit. This award really belongs to the legal department at CTA. All my accomplishments are only there because I had group legal services from CTA,” said Deglow. She is now in her 59^th year of teaching at Sacramento City College.

Congratulations to our WHO award recipients! 

 WHO State:
Annette Deglow, Los Rios Teachers Association

WHO Chapter:
Daniel Vernazza, South Orange County Community College District Faculty Association
Jesus Gutierrez, Citrus College Faculty Association
Becky Plaza, San Joaquin Delta College Teachers Association
Byron Williams, San Bernardino Community College District Teachers Association
Herschel Greenberg, Mt. San Antonio College Faculty Association
Jill Pfeiffer, Rio Hondo College Faculty Association
Michael Gianvecchio, Napa Valley College Faculty Association
Rob Unger, Southwestern College Education Association

Congratulations to our CCA Statewide Advocacy award recipient!

Greg Gibson, San Joaquin Delta College Teachers Association 

Congratulations to our Faculty, Equity and Development Committee award recipients! 

CCA LGBTQ+ Award in Honor of David A. Sanchez: Corinna Evett, Faculty Association of Rancho Santiago Community College District  

CCA BIPOC Award in Honor of Mary Ann Pacheco: Martha Villareal, San Joaquin Delta College Teachers Association  

CCA Part-Time Faculty Award in Honor of David B. Milroy: Geoffery Johnson, Southwestern College Education Association

Congratulations to all those who won CCA board member seats! To learn more about your newly elected board members, check out this map and visit cca4us.org.