Jan Hochadel

President

Phone: (860) 257-9782

Click here to email Jan.

Delegates to the 68th biennial convention in May, 2015 elected Jan Hochadel as president of AFT Connecticut. At the time she was in her sixth year as an officer of the affiliated State Vocational Federation of Teachers (SVFT), representing the Connecticut State Technical High School System’s (CTHSS) educators and support personnel.

Jan held a variety of union leadership roles with SVFT, including on the Grievance and Arbitration Committee and as building representative for J.M. Wright Technical High School in Stamford. She previously served as treasurer of AFT Connecticut’s state employee unions coalition and on the Executive Committee as jurisdictional vice president for members employed under the State Employees Relations Act (SERA).

In 2016, Jan was first elected as a vice president to AFT’s national executive board where she serves on the organizing committee and the public employees program and policy council (PPC). Three years later she was tapped to co-chair the inter-American regional executive committee of Public Services International (PSI), the global voice for public employee unions.

In addition to her union leadership roles, Jan has a deep background in education and public service. She taught science at both Wright Tech H.S., where she was the 2006-2007 teacher of the year, and Kaynor Technical High School in Waterbury. Jan additionally served as an after-school supervisor class advisor, a Beginning Educator Support Team (BEST) mentor and chemical hygiene officer while working as an educator in the CTHSS.

In late 2018, Jan was tapped by then Governor-elect Ned Lamont to serve on his transition committee. The administration then selected her in the spring of 2020 for a major role on the state’s “Reopen Connecticut” panel to address the impact of the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) pandemic.

Two years later Jan successfully ran to represent the residents of Connecticut’s 13th state Senate District in the General Assembly. In her first term she was tapped to co-lead the legislature’s joint committee on aging and serve as the environment committee’s vice chair.

Jan earned her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New Haven and holds a Master’s of Science (M.S.) in education and an 092 administrator’s certificate from Sacred Heart University.