PERSON: Karen Lewis (Deceased)

Karen Lewis (née Jennings; July 20, 1953 – February 7, 2021) was an American educator and labor leader who served as president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Chicago’s division of the American Federation of Teachers, from 2010 to 2014. For nearly 20 years before becoming president of the teachers union, she was a high school chemistry teacher.

Karen Jennings was born on July 20, 1953, in Chicago’s South Side to a family of teachers. She attended Kenwood High School, but left after her junior year to attend Mount Holyoke College. Lewis said Mount Holyoke “taught [her] you can do anything [...] to use your mind well [...] to express yourself.” She transferred to Dartmouth College in 1972, when Dartmouth became the last Ivy League institution to become co-educational, and was the only African-American woman in the class of 1974. However, she said at Dartmouth “it was clear that women weren’t wanted” and called the university “a really bad experience for me, but it made me stronger.” She graduated with a degree in sociology and music. After graduation, she married Arnold Glenn and moved to Oklahoma; the couple later divorced. She then earned a Master of Arts degree in inner city studies from Northeastern Illinois University.

>> Wikipedia