Tia Mills, Ed.D.

Tia Trumaine Mills, Ed.D. is a special education teacher from Baton Rouge, La., with more than 20 years of classroom experience. Mills was elected to the NEA Executive Committee in 2025 for a three-year term.

Mills is the immediate past president of the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) and the youngest person to serve as president in the association’s history. In her capacity as president of LAE, she served as the official spokeswoman of LAE where her primary duties included leading the association’s efforts at the Louisiana State Legislature and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meetings.

She also served as local president of the East Baton Rouge Parish Association of Educators (EBRPAE) for seven years. As president, Mills led the association’s efforts in the fight to enhance the salaries of district employees by convincing the school board to unfreeze educators’ pay schedules. She was also instrumental in helping increase membership in the local by 30 percent during her term as EBRPAE President and led the local association’s push for fair standards for the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program.

Mills’ state-level activism includes her service on the LAE Board of Directors, as well as the Board of Trustees for the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana. In 2017, LAE honored Mills with the association’s top honor, the LAE Teacher Image Award.

A strong and fierce advocate for students and their educators, Mills has received numerous accolades, including the NAACP’s Benjamin Hooks Keeper of the Flame Award, the NEA Foundation’s Horace Mann Award, and recognition as one of Southern University’s “40 Under 40.”

Mills is affiliated with several professional and civic organizations, including the Southern University Alumni Federation, the NAACP, 100 Black Women of Metropolitan Baton Rouge, and is a proud member of the Tau Kappa Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

Mills believes that the fight for public education and labor is inseparable from the fight for equity and racial and social justice. As an adjunct professor at Southern University in Baton Rouge, she hopes to inspire a new generation of activist leaders to uphold the NEA’s rich legacy of fighting for great public schools for every student.

Mills earned her Bachelor of Arts in history, Master of Arts in social science with a concentration in history, and an alternative certification in special education, all from Southern University and A&M College. She received her EdD in higher education and organizational leadership from Nova Southeastern University.