Lon Garrison, Outgoing AASB Executive Director
On May 29th, 2026, I will officially retire as the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards. In October 2007, I had no idea how much being elected to my local school board in Sitka would change my life. I was first introduced to AASB when the board told me to mark my calendar for the AASB Annual Conference in Anchorage in early November. To be clear, I was not asked if I could go; I was informed that this was a required board function. It was the board’s greatest opportunity for professional development and my chance to get oriented to my new role. Looking back, it was the first of several pivotal moments over the next 19 years, and I am ever so thankful.
The opportunity to serve my community by supporting and governing public education resonated with my core. I think there may be something in my DNA that recognizes the critical importance of public education. My grandfather was a teacher in rural Colorado in the 1930s. He served on the Englewood, Colorado, school board, became the Dean of the School of Education at the University of Denver, and worked for nearly 30 years at the US Bureau of Education. My sister has been a middle school science teacher for nearly 25 years in Oak Harbor, WA, and my daughter is a certified science teacher now working for Discovery Southeast here in Juneau. I tried to do my part through school boards.
What these past 19 years have taught me is how important and precious our public education system is. You often hear that public education and local school boards are the foundation of our democracy. It is entirely true, yet too many of our fellow citizens take it for granted or dismiss it. The opportunity for any child in this country, especially in Alaska, to receive an education, no matter who they are or where they come from, is the single greatest opportunity to perpetuate the idea of a nation governed by the people and for the people.
A free public education is also our single greatest opportunity to develop individuals capable of generating the resources necessary to sustain our country and a large part of the world. Our public education system produces the graduates who go on to become the doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals, and scientists we desperately need to ensure our posterity. It also produces the skilled workers we need to build, farm, and manage natural resources sustainably. In short, public education is our opportunity for our collective future.
Unfortunately, over the past 30 to 40 years, that paradigm has shifted and been shaken to its core. We have increasingly become a society focused on what is best for “me,” with little regard for commitment and responsibility to us all. Locally elected and locally governed public schools are the antidote to this insidious malady. The Association of Alaska School Boards (AASB) is the mentor, the trainer, and the voice for school board members across the state. AASB is your resource and belongs to you, the members. It is the “opportunity” you, as school board members and school districts, have to invest in yourselves as local and even national leaders supporting the single most important element of our continued existence, our children.
With that, I pass the torch to the next executive director of AASB, Tiffany Jackson. Like several of us who have been honored to lead this organization, Tiffany is a former school board member, a two-time AASB president, and a former NSBA Board of Directors member. Tiffany brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this challenging and important position. Like her predecessors, she understands the importance of our mission, “to advocate for children and youth by assisting school boards in providing quality public education, focused on student achievement, through effective local governance.”
I am certain I will see many of you in the future. I will be near, but for now I look forward to time with family, especially my grandchildren, and to focusing on the many projects I set aside that need attention.
All my best, and keep up the great work you all do!
Lon Garrison
