Barbara Madeloni is an educator and activist from Northampton, Mass., who was elected in May as president of the 110,000 member Massachusetts Teachers Association for a two year term. Madeloni defeated Tim Sullivan, the chosen candidate of the previous, term-limited president Paul Toner, who was known for his closeness to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and the state’s Democratic Party establishment.

She first became known in 2012 as a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s School of Education, where she led opposition to a proposed teacher evaluation system overseen by Pearson, the large for-profit education company. She was fired because of her activism around the issue.

Madeloni is unique among labor leaders. Her level of analysis concerning the crisis facing organized labor and public education is refreshing at a time when both national teachers unions — the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers — seem unshakably wedded to a failed model of unionism.