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Bar News - January 3, 2003 Terry Shumaker Named NEA-NH Executive Director CONCORD ATTORNEY Edward E. "Terry" Shumaker's career has again taken a detour from traditional law practice. Shumaker, the former ambassador to the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, recently accepted the position of executive director for the NH chapter of the National Education Association. Shumaker, 54, most recently practiced with the Concord firm of Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, where he previously served as the firm's president. He focused on employment law and was the head of his firm's alternative dispute resolution practice. He began his new duties at the NEA this month. With 13,000 members, the NEA is the state's largest teacher organization and labor union. As the NEA-NH executive director, Shumaker will serve as general counsel to the organization, as well as managing its daily operations and budget. He will also be involved in NEA-NH's policy-making and lobbying initiatives. While serving as ambassador to Trinidadand Tobago in the late-1990s, Shumaker started a privately funded Fulbright Scholarship program that has sent 18 Trinidadian students to American universities to study for bachelor's and master's degrees. One issue Shumaker believes will face the teaching profession in NH during his tenure as NEA-NH executive director is a potential shortage of teachers in the state. The average teacher in NH is 46 years old and approaching retirement. In an interview with The Concord Monitor, Shumaker said that replacing this group of older teachers will be difficult because about one-third of new teachers leave the profession in their first three to five years. This high turnover is due in part to the state's unresolved education funding crisis, which has an impact on teacher retention rates, as well as on teacher salaries. "It's all interrelated. Money is not the only answer to quality education but it plays a significant role," Shumaker said. Shumaker is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Boston University School of Law. He was admitted to the NH Bar in 1973.
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