Award: Robert E. Kelly Award Name: Sheila McGann-Tiedt Region: 8 Retired Cupertino Union School District administrator Sheila McGann-Tiedt has worked tirelessly to make her corner of the world a little brighter. She has won this year’s Robert E. Kelly Award, which honors retired individuals who help advance the high quality of public education and who have made significant contributions on a volunteer basis over the years. McGann-Tiedt said her entry into volunteer work was a product of where she lived. When she and late husband Sidney Tiedt moved to downtown San Jose in 1979, their neighborhood was rapidly deteriorating. In addition to blight from litter and abandoned houses, speeding vehicles made the streets some of the most dangerous in the city. Seeing the need to reduce accidents and slow down traffic, the couple worked with their neighbors and the city to establish medians in the middle of the street. “We thought, if we don’t do it, no one’s going to do it,” she said. “I think if I moved somewhere else, I wouldn’t have gotten so involved. But you had to be involved.” The neighbors created the Median Buddies group, which continues to landscape the medians to this day. McGann-Tiedt also made her community better through her work in education. Starting as an elementary school teacher in 1965, McGann-Tiedt rose to several administrative positions, eventually retiring as director of instruction at Cupertino Union School District in 2006.  It was upon retirement that she took special interest in ending the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, which unfairly affect the retirement incomes of educators by reducing and, in the case of spouses, eliminating the Social Security benefit.  She has seen numerous friends and colleagues affected by these laws, not to mention her own experience following the death of her husband, a professor at San Jose State. “Because he earned Social Security outside of work and because he was a professor and had CalPERS, I got none of it,” she said. “I just think people don’t realize the hit teachers are taking, and it’s mostly women.” McGann-Tiedt joined the California Retired Teachers Association and later ACSA to work on this issue and others affecting retirees. She has lobbied heavily in Washington, D.C., on these laws that require federal change. As a member of the ACSA Region 8 Retired Charter, McGann-Tiedt grew membership to 107 members during her four years as vice president of membership. She’s since dialed back her role at the charter while continuing to do other work she is passionate about, including litter clean-up on highway on-ramps, serving homeless women through the San Jose Women’s Club and mentoring new administrators. “I’ve had to say to myself, you can’t do everything,” she said with a laugh. “There’s a lot to do and a lot of needs, and I’ve had to focus — and that’s something as a retiree I’ve had to learn to do.”