Joan Lee Husted, a local education advocate who held several leadership roles to improve the quality of learning for keiki, has died at age 85.
Her family said Husted died at her Makiki home under hospice care on Oct. 2.
She spent 34 years at the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association, first serving as chair of the union’s negotiations committee in 1971.
Husted was one of its first employees in 1973 and rose through the ranks to eventually become executive director, becoming the first woman to hold that position.
"Her friendship, her intellect, and her fierce advocacy for Hawai’i’s teachers, educators, schools and, most especially, Hawaiʻi’s schoolchildren, will live on in the hearts of those influenced by her tireless efforts,” said Joan Lewis, HEA’s president.
Husted negotiated 15 collective bargaining agreements for teachers during her career. She retired from HSTA in 2007.
At the time of her passing, she was serving as the board vice president of the Hawaiʻi Education Association, a nonprofit that advocates for teachers.
She is survived by her daughter Tina, and son-in-law Rodney Lacy Sr., her two grandchildren and a great-grandson, and her brother Harry Robert Husted of Texas.
