| SEARCH OnWEAC |
|---|
 |
Dan Burkhalter
Executive Director
Wisconsin Education Association
Council
Dan Burkhalter was hired as executive director of the Wisconsin Education Association Council effective May 2, 2005, after 12 years as the Illinois Education Association’s director of government relations and chief lobbyist.
Since joining WEAC, Burkhalter has focused much of his time working with coalitions on school funding, addressing the health care problem facing members and building relationships with external partners.
Prior to joining WEAC, Burkhalter worked at the Illinois Education Association since 1982, first as a membership organizer, then as a government relations specialist before becoming director of government relations in 1993. Over the years, he partnered with association leaders to promote quality public education and build a bipartisan political program that led to passage of improved benefits and funding for public education and school employees. Burkhalter was an architect of a comprehensive Illinois school funding reform coalition that included diverse labor, business, taxpayer, and social service organizations. He served as one of four senior policy advisers to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s governor-elect transition team.
During his time in Illinois, Burkhalter also created the “Go-team” program to involve new members in IEA by engaging members with fewer than 10 years of experience in an ongoing statewide grassroots lobbying effort, and co-chaired the IEA restructuring committee to radically change the organization’s operation in order to improve member services and reduce costs.
Born and raised in Illinois, Burkhalter is a product of its public schools and is a political science graduate of the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Burkhalter and his wife, Sharon Corrigan, have two daughters, Molly, and Brighid. Burkhalter also has a son James, and a daughter Kourtney.
WEAC is a professional organization representing the public policy, labor and professional interests of its more than 98,000 members. Great schools benefit everyone, and WEAC’s mission is to support public education and the men and women who work in Wisconsin’s public schools.
Posted August 13, 2007
