By Amy Moran, Ph.D.
This Women’s History Month, let’s celebrate Susan M. Waldron, a 20-year New Jersey educator, currently working in North Brunswick Township where she is an elementary school special education paraprofessional.
In addition to being a local association representative, Waldron currently holds positions in the local North Brunswick Township Education Association (NBTEA), including as its legislative action team (LAT) chairperson, the website manager, a representative to the Middlesex County Education Association (MCEA), and the Education Support Professional (ESP) Mentoring Program coordinator.
At the county level, Waldron is the MCEA second vice president, the Middlesex County representative on NJEA’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Committee, Educational Support Professional Advocacy Network (ESPAN) captain and Facebook page manager. She has served as a delegate to the NEA Representative Assembly. Prior to that, she was the co-president for New Jersey Educational Services Commission paraprofessionals from 2015-20.
Waldron has been a member of the SOGI Committee since 2018. She wanted to get involved both as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and because she felt that ESP voices need to be in more spaces within our association. For Waldron, SOGI representatives and their leaders have worked to bring awareness and intentional changes to both the committee and our community.
“We have worked with NJEA to become a more inclusive association by adding gender-affirming demographic information on membership applications and registration forms. We have policies put in place to have gender-neutral bathrooms at all meetings, events and conferences along with visible signage. Our committee has taken on the great task of hosting and facilitating a conference so that members can come together in a space that is affirming to them,” Waldron says.
One of SOGI’s biggest successes, Waldron attests, has been moving from a special NJEA committee to a standing NJEA committee. This change reinforces to members that the association supports and acknowledges the needs of our LGBTQIA+ members, setting the goals they work on each year to improve the conditions for all staff and students. For Waldron, a great source of pride is when members connect with their county SOGI representative for:
- Association support, if needed, at local board of education meetings
- Help finding curricular resources
- Gender & Sexuality Alliance training
- Assistance with LGBTQIA+ inclusive contract language
- A support network designed to help LGBTQIA+ NJEA members
“Out” at work since 2011, Waldron never felt like she was treated differently and felt only welcome from her colleagues. As a bisexual woman with grown children, she says, “When you are out at work, you are always coming out. And switching school districts introduces a whole new group of people to come out to. Moreover, most of our colleagues don’t realize that we are always coming out. It can either become a burden with putting us in a constant state of alert, or we can hold our heads up high and speak our truth, making it a ‘them’ problem if they can’t accept us as we are.”
After having adopted this attitude, Waldron says, “I do not feel that I have ever been excluded from anything or discriminated against for being out at work.” In fact, when Waldron began working in North Brunswick, she told her local president about the queer-affirming NEA “I’m Here” badges, and they got a grant to get badges for all members who requested them. One of Waldron’s queer colleagues came to her after and thanked her, saying they never thought that they would see the day that something like that would be available in their career.
Thank you for all you do, for so many, Susan M. Waldron!
Amy Moran, Ph.D. (she/her) is an out queer educator, advocate and activist working to make education inclusive and affirming for all students and colleagues. She is a 31-year middle school teacher, was a high school GSA advisor for 16 years, served on NJEA’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee and received NJEA’s Equality Champion Award.