Colleen Bird promoted to HSTA chief negotiator

C​olleen Bird, who has served as the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association’s negotiations and research specialist for more than five years, has been promoted to become the union’s chief negotiator.

“My mother was a teacher. Two of my paternal grandparents were teachers, so I’ve been surrounded by educators my entire life,” Bird said.

“I understand that, to be a teacher, you have to be passionate about it and that it’s not only about the salary. Teachers deserve to be treated with respect and as professionals, and I believe I can help improve their conditions in this new position,” she added.

Her family also has strong union ties.

Her mother spent 38 years as a teacher for the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education and was a longtime member of HSTA.

Bird remembers walking the picket line as a five-year-old outside Pūʻōhala Elementary in Kāneʻohe, where she was a kindergarten student during HSTA’s first strike in 1973, her mother’s first year as a public school teacher.

“I remember napping in the car while mom blocked the back entrance to Pūʻōhala school,” during the strike, Bird said.

Bird’s grandmother taught in Oʻahu public schools for more than 50 years, retiring from McKinley High, and then served as an adult education teacher, earning teacher-of-the-year recognition in adult education in her 80s, she said.

Bird’s father was a cable splicer for Hawaiian Telephone Company and a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1357. He served as an IBEW union representative, advocating for his coworkers.

Both of her father’s parents were public school teachers and his family lived in teacher cottages in several locations, including Pepeʻekeo on Hawaiʻi Island.

Bird brings extensive experience in collective bargaining, negotiations support, research and data analysis, and labor relations strategy to her new position.

“I’ve learned a lot about the education system, where improvements can be made. How there are so many different situations at different geographical locations throughout the state, and how difficult it is to level the playing field for all of our students,” Bird said.

HSTA’s executive director says Bird seeks to secure ‘lasting gains for educators’

Until her recent promotion, Bird served as the negotiations and research specialist at HSTA and worked with HSTA’s then-Deputy Director and Chief Negotiator, Andrea Eshelman. Eshelman became HSTA’s executive director last fall.

Eshelman said, “Over the last five years, Colleen has developed a deep understanding of the realities of teaching in Hawaiʻi. She believes successful bargaining starts with listening to all members, not just the loudest voices, and turning those perspectives into strong, workable contract language.”

“She also understands the importance of securing lasting gains for educators, including fair compensation that reflects the true value of their work. Colleen brings sharp research skills, strategic insight, and a disciplined, respectful approach to the bargaining table, always focused on improving working conditions while honoring the people who do this work every day,” Eshelman added.

As the negotiations specialist, Bird collaborated with Eshelman and HSTA’s bargaining team to develop, draft, and present proposals during contract negotiations. She also managed the consult-and-confer process with HIDOE.

“There’s such a diverse amount of backgrounds, and unlike any other state, Hawaiʻi is the only state with one school district, which has both its benefits and its negatives. And it’s our job to try to address this so that all of Hawaiʻi’s children have the same opportunities,” Bird said.

Tui calls her ‘ruthless and determined’ advocating for members

HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr., said, “I’ve been so blessed to have worked with Colleen during HSTA’s last two rounds of bargaining in 2021 and 2023. Not only is she sweet and caring, but she’s also ruthless and determined when it comes to advocating for our members’ best interests.”

“Her experiences with HSTA and in prior positions make her the perfect fit as HSTA’s chief negotiator. I look forward to working with her again in her new position as we look to improve upon our current contract in the next round of bargaining,” Tui added.

A graduate of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with an undergraduate degree in American Studies, she was a congressional intern for U.S. Sen. Spark Matsunaga (D, HI) and U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle (D, South Dakota).

She also served as a legal intern for both the State of Hawaiʻi Attorney General and the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the U.S. Department of Justice.

After earning her law degree at George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., Bird served as a law clerk for Chief Judge James Burns on Hawaiʻi’s Intermediate Court of Appeals.

While still in her 20s, Bird joined the nonprofit Child and Family Service as the director of legal affairs and risk management, a post she held for six years.

“We had a high school for at-risk youth in addition to spouse abuse shelters throughout the state,” she recalled.

“I also worked directly with the contractors and the board on our family center in ʻEwa Beach, which allowed me to learn about facilities, contracts, and those kinds of operations,” Bird added.

CFS had a unionized unit of social workers represented by the United Public Workers union, so Bird negotiated their contracts across the table from UPW’s shrewd and powerful then-State Director Gary Rodrigues.

Bird also spent 15 years at the University of Hawaiʻi system in a variety of positions, including as an administrative officer at the College of Engineering and as a fiscal specialist at the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. In those positions, she oversaw grants, procurement, contracts, and fiscal operations.

Her experience at UH “helped me to understand how the state processes things, how the state enforces clauses in our union contracts, like working conditions.”

An experienced negotiator told Bird early in her career that “Unless we collaborate, it’s like you’re in a canoe with only one paddle. Anyone who knows paddling knows if you don’t paddle on both sides, you’re gonna just go in circles,” she recalled.

“A big part of education is collaboration, and it’s going to take all of us. It takes the teachers. But you know, it’s not only up to the teachers. It’s also up to the parents to step in and support their keiki and their educators. It’s up to the state to provide the opportunities. It’s up to the teachers to implement the opportunities, but it’s up to the parents and the kids to take advantage of those opportunities that are there,” Bird concluded.

Bird has two sons: the youngest is a high school senior, and the oldest is in his last year of law school at the University of Hawaiʻi’s William S. Richardson School of Law. In her spare time, Bird serves as the team mom for her younger son’s water polo and paddling teams and enjoys other volunteer work.

An avid baker, she has wowed coworkers and friends with homemade treats such as lemon bars, chocolate chip cookies and caramel cuts, also known as blonde brownies.