Teopista Birungi Mayanja is the founder and General Secretary of the Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) and an advocate of free education for all and better conditions for teachers. She presently serves as Regional Coordinator at the Africa Network Campaign for Education For All (ANCEFA). A teacher by profession, she was at the fulcrum as teachers staged a strike over government’s refusal to increase their salaries. Mayanja continued her role informing the discussion regarding the plight of teachers when she was a panelist at Education First, an education initiative championed by to address the challenges of teachers globally. Mayanja was involved in the Primary Education Reform, which sought to concretize the government’s 1992 White Paper on Education and its outline of the national goals of primary education.