CTA Executive Director Jeff Good

Jeff Good, CTA’s new executive director, brings years of experience teaching in the classroom, as a leader in his own local chapter, and organizing throughout our union.

In a short interview, Good shared his motivations and vision for the years ahead.

On his union perspective

A union is like-minded people coming together, acting collectively to create change and to make their lives better. We have serious challenges in front of us, both as a union and as a society. School funding in California is tumultuous. We are living in an educator shortage. Our students and communities go without the resources they deserve. The only way to confront those challenges is to take action together to change the playing field upon which those challenges are met.

When educators come together to determine shared goals and then move in the same direction there is no victory — at the worksite or statewide, that is outside of our reach.

On his union background

I’ve been either a member of CTA or an employee of CTA for almost 30 years. In those 30 years, there are many examples of educators coming together in their union and winning. One strong example was the State Capitol mobilization in 2000, when thousands of CTA members from across the state went to the steps of the Capitol to demand an increase in funding that yielded 10% salary increases in many locals statewide.

Another was the 2005 campaign against Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempt to degrade every aspect of working conditions for workers in this state; we overwhelmingly defeated him.

And one of my greatest sources of pride was to work alongside the members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), to build structures for collective action, and secure victories in our contract campaigns, political campaigns and common good campaigns. Every campaign had a powerful impact on public schools, the labor movement and the lives of working people throughout Los Angeles.

We had two strikes at UTLA that were very impactful. In 2023, educators walked out with classified workers in true solidarity. I’ll always remember my daughter asking me a clarifying question, “Dad, are you saying that teachers are giving up pay so that other people can get paid more?” And I said, yes, that’s exactly what they were doing. That’s the kind of solidarity built through collective action that can have a lasting impact on our communities and potentially the entire state.

On his early life influences

I grew up with parents who injected in me a sense of obligation to do my part to make the world a better place. And I loved politics — I was a political junkie.

That’s why I operate at a fast pace, feeling like I’ve got to maximize my time on this earth to do things that make a difference in people’s lives. I was always supportive politically of organized labor. But at my first teaching job in Washington, D.C. — back in the early ‘90s — within a couple of days of being a classroom teacher, I realized that the union was going to be the vessel for change. There were so many things missing in that school, in my classroom, in terms of what students needed, what parents needed, what the community needed, what I needed as an educator to be able to do my job effectively.

It was very clear to me that it was going to take my colleagues and I working together in our union to make the change we wanted to see. It was my wake-up moment on the power of unionism and its marriage to creating real change in public education.

On what he’s learned from others

I admire people for how they approach their own lives. Do they approach their life with passion? With a work ethic? In a way that embraces the people around them and appreciates what people around them bring to the table?

When I started as a teacher, I wanted to learn from the people around me. When I started working at CTA, I immediately started identifying other staff who I wanted to learn from — and realized the value in hearing all of the various approaches to teaching in the classroom and getting active in the union. Educators have such a wealth of knowledge, generosity, compassion and grit. We are a force to be reckoned with.

On what he hopes to build with CTA members and staff

My goal is to work alongside CTA members to be a fighting union that can win — at our school sites, in our local districts and at the state level. I firmly believe that we are the most powerful union in the nation. With that power comes great responsibility. We must constantly build and exercise our power for transformative change and inspire our members and community partners to fight for it.

I see California as being kind of the tip of the spear for the entire planet. We draw people from every corner of the earth. Despite the challenges in front of us, I’m excited. There are no limits to the creativity, intelligence and resiliency of our members in attacking those challenges.

In Brief: Jeff Good

Then and now: Born in Dallas, Texas; lives in Los Angeles

Family: Wife Ngozika Anyanwu teaches second grade at Hudnall Elementary in Inglewood. “We met when we were teaching at the same school, and I signed her up to join the union.” They are parents to son Justice Anyanwu-Good, 17, and daughter Truth Anyanwu-Good, 14. “My family is my greatest source of strength. Peace, relaxation and sanity. I could not survive without them. They are truly at my core, who I am. We call ourselves the Fantastic Four.”

Education: Brown University; majored in History

Most influential book: Native Son by Richard Wright. “It was a really impactful book at a certain point in my life that has affected how I have approached life.”

Current reading: “A book about the 1990s New York Knicks who were a group of like-minded people who fought systematically to achieve the goals that they wanted to achieve.”

Random facts: He loved sports as a kid and “grew up pretty determined to be an NFL football player.” He has a twin brother, a former educator, who along with his parents and another brother all live in LA. (Another brother remains in Texas.) Daily morning routine includes working out and reading the LA Times, NY Times or Sacramento Bee. Downtime finds him with family, reading or watching sports, or some combination of them.

Good adds that he “has an amazing family of parents, siblings, nephews, nieces and cousins through marriages and relationships who all spend time together and provide constant support for the Fantastic Four.”