Lacey re-elected as SEA president

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Diana Lacey was re-elected yesterday for a two-year term as president of the State Employees’ Association, with a pledge to continue fighting anti-union legislation.

“(Delegates) sent a strong message that we will continue down this path, being actively engaged and bringing our voices for working families forward into the election and the legislative cycle after,” Lacey said yesterday afternoon. Lacey, 48, is a Department of Health and Human Services contract administrator from Belmont. In 2010, she became the first full-time female SEA president.

Lacey won over Bruce Vandlandingham in a 94-37 vote at the SEA’s annual convention in Bartlett yesterday, the SEA said in a press release. Vandlandingham did not return a phone message left last night.

Lacey said the convention’s theme, “All In To Win,” means the SEA will work to represent its members not only in the upcoming election, but the next legislative term.

“We want to call upon all political leaders to do right by working families and to help all working families thrive,” she said.

Lacey will take a two-year leave from her job with the state to lead the union, and the SEA will pay the state for the cost of her salary and benefits.

Also at the SEA convention yesterday, Betty Thomas was elected second vice president over Tammy Clark in the only other contested race.

For other SEA positions, Ken Roos was re-elected to a second term as the union’s first vice president, longtime SEA Treasurer Ralph Tilton was re-elected and Shelley Elmes was elected secretary.