VP for Academic High Schools

Janella T. Hinds brings a wealth of experience in both education and labor to her role as vice president for academic high schools.

Now in her fourth term, Janella champions equity for students and empowerment for educators in each and every New York City high school. Janella leads her division and inspires her members by remaining laser-focused on the policy and collective bargaining issues specific to secondary schools.

Janella’s more-than-24-year arc as educator-activist took shape early. Her father, a veteran chapter leader, imparted a strong unionist ethos.

From her early work as a school-based chapter leader and p.m. staffer in the grievance and certification/licensing departments to her current role as vice president — conducted while teaching social studies at the High School for Public Service in Brooklyn — Janella manages to balance classroom teaching and union work with skill and grace.

When grappling with questions about technology and the classroom, Janella is thoughtful and intentional as she navigates policies that affect both the future of the labor movement and public education. She maintains that, even as technology changes, educators must continue to have a voice in working conditions and learning opportunities for students: As the union’s chief negotiator for the DOE-UFT virtual instruction pilot — Virtual Learning Classrooms — Janella ensured that our members and students can grow and thrive in digital environments.

Janella’s taken the lead in organizing members to use their voices on the school level through consultation. She has established platforms that allow members to collaborate and develop solutions; she has spearheaded committees and focus groups on a range of issues. She places a special emphasis on student achievement and school safety.

Janella’s education advocacy and advancement of the labor movement extends beyond the classroom to public- and private-sector union members across the city. She serves as the liaison to the union’s School Secretaries Chapter, and in addition to her responsibilities at the UFT, Janella has been re-elected to serve a fourth four-year term as secretary-treasurer of the New York City Central Labor Council. In that role, she is responsible for fiduciary oversight of this umbrella labor organization, which represents 1.3 million workers in about 400 public- and private-sector unions.

A proponent for equity, fairness and advancement, Janella serves as the chair of the New York Union Child Care Coalition, where she fights for working people to have access to high-quality, affordable child care and advocates for living wages for our child care workers.

As an acknowledged leader in her field, Janella is an in-demand voice on education and labor panels from conferences to podcasts to protests.

Janella earned a bachelor's degree in sociology with a concentration in African American studies from Princeton University and her master's in social studies education from New York University. She is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.