Pamela Pugh is only the second African American woman to serve as the state’s Board of Education president, and she brings an original trait to the position.
Public health and public schools have never been more connected, so who better to serve in the center chair than a county public health official?
Before Dr. Pugh first won her state school board seat in 2014, she served as the Health Improvement Director for the Saginaw County Department of Public Health.
It turns out the two tasks are linked even more closely than even Pam may have imagined when she took office. First came the Flint water crisis and a lesser-known Detroit school building scandal, both with unprecedented impact on children’s schools and their health. Then came COVID-19.
She has proven to be ahead of her time, both on the state school board and in her profession, bringing public health expertise and civil rights emphasis as appointed leader of the eight-member body with a Democratic Party majority.
Pam hesitated to run for the state board because she figured candidates should bring extensive backgrounds in public education, not so much in public health.
Imagine possessing a doctoral degree, and still doubt being “qualified,” but that was her modest question.
She was unsure because her main experience with children was not in a classroom. She was a teacher of a different sort with the Saginaw County Department of Public Health, where she educated both the people and the powers-that-be to combat child lead-paint poisoning, then teaming with Rep. Carl Williams to establish a state model prevention program.
Friends at that time persuaded her to file for the 2014 ballot by saying, in so many words, “Well, you know, Pam, we cannot offer the best public education unless our children are healthy and active.”
She won an eight-year term, which she renewed in last fall’s statewide election. And now, her cohorts on the state board have appointed her president for 2023-24, which oversees K-12 schooling for more than 1.4 million students in 539 local districts.
There was a time when Pamela’s own health was in question. At age 19, a college freshman at Delta College, she suddenly found herself in a hospital bed with awful overall ailments, including liver and kidney failure.
Doctors could not figure out what was happening, not even at U-M Hospital. She gradually recovered, just as mysteriously. Still, no answers, but it intensified her desire to learn more about how the environment impacts health. Though she went on to gain a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Florida A&M, she eventually began studies to place stronger emphasis on the intersection of environmental impacts and public health.
Pugh rarely shares her personal story, and few among her peers in top positions realize that her service is inspired by her nightmare episode three decades ago.
“I felt as if I were looking in the mirror,” she says, explaining how the debacle affected her. “Every experience, every twist and turn in my path reflected my life story. This is where I was meant to be.”
John and Carolyn Pugh, teen sweethearts from 1960s Mississippi, were in their 52nd year of marriage when the family matriarch passed away in 2016. Their home was always filled with social activism, going back to when John had joined Medgar Evers in a civil rights boycott, prior to Evers being assassinated in 1963.
Like many in their generation, the young couple headed north, to pursue better opportunities. After undergrad studies at Florida A&M and grad school at the University of Toledo, John Pugh began his 36-year education career at Delta College, as an administrator who devoted more time in community outreach than behind his desk. He never was a political candidate himself, opting instead to organize for candidates who ran the gamut from national to state to local.
In the NAACP, his family has been longtime organizers to keep young people involved through ACT-SO events.
Pamela extended her own education, Saginaw High Class of 1989, then Delta College Class of 1990, followed by her father’s alma mater, Florida A&M University, and ultimately to the University of Michigan. She has carried this upbringing into Democratic Party activity, leading to the respect she has achieved within the ranks.
When she won the state board seat in 2014, she expected the time commitment would only consist of a couple full days per month for regular meetings, along with some other odd hours here and there.
“It definitely has turned out to be much more than that,” she says.
Issues have gone beyond the water in Flint schools, or building upkeep in the Detroit district, or pandemic everywhere.
A more familiar concern is inclusion of African American history, with some opposers aiming for restrictions on reporting factual events, along with book bans and curricula censorship. Deniers of critical race theory are misinformed to the point where they falsely view CRT as a K-12 curriculum, when actually it is college level.
National headlines in regard to revising or canceling Black history come mainly from Florida and Texas, under GOP governors DeSantis and Abbott, but Pugh says Michigan is not immune even with Gretchen Whitmer as a Democrat at the helm. Republican legislators and local elected officials have continued to influence local districts to ban Black History events and books by and about Black people and those which tackle issues of racism and gender identity. In recent years, there was a push for social studies standards to remove “NAACP” from learning materials, and “LGBTQ+” is another frequent target. Black studies foes went to the point of stacking a 10-hour board meeting a year ago with more than 600 people signed up to speak.
As board vice-president at the time, Pugh’s motion to protect censorship of history passed on a 5-1 vote.
Also, state takeovers of struggling districts remain an ongoing point of contention. Saginaw City was at risk during the past decade but has emerged from the troubles. Pam has opposed state actions in such sites as Detroit and Benton Harbor, which all are minority-majority districts.
Many concerns receive rare headlines but remain at the forefront, everything from class sizes to mental health to physical education and nutrition.
Pugh has engaged in her share of board table back-and-forth, but the Dems have held a majority, except for a spell with a 4-4 split. A main occasion for her to stand alone was when a group of Detroit parents sued for damages when their children fell behind in literacy. The state Education Department and Board of Education members were listed among defendants, but Pam took the side of the families.
With no current major inner battles on the state school board, this means her main mission as president becomes promoting Michigan public education as a whole, even while aiming to fix the flaws and that means ongoing challenges with legislators in pursuit of ongoing funds.
“We are advocates and we use our bully pulpit,” Pam asserts. “We speak as a bloc by passing resolutions, so that we may meet these necessary needs for the State of Michigan.”
For Pamela Pugh’s biography on the Michigan Department of Education website, click here.
Pam’s role as state board president pays a minimum stipend, similar to serving on a local school board. Her current make-a-living employment aims to promote equal rights as society deals with climate change and environmental concerns that often have harmed minority groups out of proportion. Click here to learn more.
