Fedrick C. Ingram

Fedrick C. Ingram is secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, serving 1.7 million members, including pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; and nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Ingram is the immediate past president of the 140,000-member Florida Education Association. He has served as an elected vice president of the AFT’s executive council, and he served as an AFT vice president for six years (2014-2020) before being elected as the AFT’s secretary-treasurer.

Since becoming secretary-treasurer in 2020, Ingram has amplified the voices of AFT members nationwide, particularly on education, labor and racial justice. President Joe Biden appointed him in April 2023 to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans.

Ingram serves on the executive committee of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department and on the board of Union Plus, a member benefits organization founded by the AFL-CIO. In June 2022, he was elected to serve as a vice president of the AFL-CIO’s Union Label and Service Trades Department, which oversees a clearinghouse of public and private sector collective bargaining agreements. Earlier in 2022, he was elected to serve as a trustee on the board of the NAACP Foundation. In 2021, Ingram was elected to chair the AFL-CIO’s Department for Professional Employees, a coalition of unions representing millions of professional and technical employees, including doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, actors and other highly trained workers.

Ingram grew up in inner-city Miami, where he attended public schools. Pursuing his love of music, he attended Bethune-Cookman University on scholarship and became the first member of his family to earn a postsecondary degree, in music education.

He would go on to become a music teacher and band director in Miami-Dade public schools for 10 years. Ingram is also an accomplished musician in his own right and has performed throughout the state and nationally as a saxophone soloist and conductor.

He was named the Francisco R. Walker Miami-Dade County Teacher of the Year in 2006, and in the same year was a finalist for the Florida Teacher of the Year award.

In 2013, he was elected president of the United Teachers of Dade, which represents employees of the fourth-largest school district in the nation. He held that post until 2015, when he was elected vice president of the Florida Education Association, where he became a bridge-builder and fearless advocate for public education, the joy of learning and the importance of the arts in education. In 2018, he won election as FEA president. Since then, he has been in frequent demand as a speaker, lecturer and presenter, and is recognized nationally for his workshops and presentations on community organizing and coalition building.

The Miami Herald’s Legacy Miami magazine named Ingram as one of South Florida’s 50 most powerful Black business leaders in 2013. He is a recipient of the prestigious JM Family African-American Achievers Award, given to leaders who have exemplified excellence in their fields.

In addition to his bachelor’s degree from Bethune-Cookman, Ingram earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from Barry University. He also holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Florida Memorial University.

He is married to Yvetta Ingram, and they have three children, all of whom have graduated from public schools and colleges.

April 2023