From rural Virginia music teacher to the nation’s top teachers union leader

Princess Moss, a music educator from rural Virginia, has been elected to lead the National Education Association — the nation's largest teachers union, representing roughly two point eight million educators and support professionals. Moss taught music in Louisa County for more than twenty years before advancing through union leadership as NEA secretary-treasurer and vice president. She takes office September 1st, succeeding Becky Pringle. According to The 19th, Moss steps into the role amid significant headwinds for public education: the Department of Education has been substantially reduced, a new federal school choice program threatens public school funding, and curriculum restrictions in multiple states limit classroom instruction. Her presidential platform, "From Resistance to Renaissance," calls for a strategic shift — away from defending public education and toward actively building stronger systems. "We move from defending what was to building what should be," Moss says. As the fourth Black woman to lead the NEA since its founding in eighteen fifty-seven, she brings lived experience with rural education challenges to the national stage.

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