Speakers

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  Aaron Bass

  EastSide Charter School

  CEO

  See Bio
• 

  C.J. Bell

  New Castle County (DE) Government

  Executive Assistant

• 

  Tawanda Bond

  Red Clay Consolidated School District

  Director of Equity & Strategic Partnerships

  See Bio
• 

  Nate Durant

  Freire Charter School Wilmington

  Co-Head of School

  See Bio
• 

  Dr. Evelyn Edney

  Early College High School

  School Leader

  See Bio
• 

  Betsy Fleetwood

  Colonial School District

  Assistant Superintendent

  See Bio
• 

  Lynn Fulton

  Delaware Department of Education

  Education Specialist, Dual Language Immersion

  See Bio
• 

  Jalaal Hayes

  Elyte Universal Network, LLC

  Founder and Program Leader

  See Bio
• 

  Renee Holt

  Delaware Department of Education

  Secretary

• 

  Margie Lopez-White

  CEO

  Las Américas ASPIRA Academy

  See Bio
• 

  Matt Meyers

  New Castle County

  County Executive

  See Bio
• 

  Juliet Murawski

  DDOE

  Financial Aid and Scholarship Administrator

  See Bio
• 

  Dr. Terrance Newton

  Warner Elementary School

  Principal

  See Bio
• 

  Karin Pleasanton

  Delaware Department of Education

  Education Specialist

• 

  Alba Roselia Espinosa

• 

  Celeste Sosa

  The Bayard School

  Elementary Leader

• 

  Dr. Salome Thomas-EL

  Thomas Edison Charter School

  Head of School

  See Bio
• 

  Dr. Crystal Timmons

  Delaware State University

  Director, Office of Clinical and Field Experiences

• 

  Rhonda West

  Delaware Department of Education

  Education Specialist

• 

  Stacie Zdrojewski, ED.S., NBCT

  Red Clay Consolidated School District

  Human Resources Education Associate

• 

  Deirdra Aikens

  Christina School District

  Deputy Assistant Superintendent / Chief Academic Officer

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Aaron Bass

EastSide Charter School

Chief Executive Officer - EastSide Charter School, Family Foundations AcademyIn 2004, as Executive Director, founded Breakthrough Fort Lauderdale, part of the National Breakthrough Collaborative, a nonprofit program that served 240 students and prepared middle school and high school students for college, and also gave high school and college students the opportunity to teach. Mr. Bass served as President for National Breakthrough Directors Association, and as Co-Chairman of the Fort Lauderdale Mayor’s Educational Board.In 2007, Mr. Bass joined KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) and was awarded the prestigious Fisher Fellowship, given by the Fisher Family (owners of the GAP, Old Navy) to establish KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy. KDCA was the only open enrollment school to have an ACT Average in the top 10 HS in Philadelphia. His first graduating class had a college matriculation of 95% – compared to Philadelphia’s average of 30%. In 2014, he became Chief of Staff and led advocacy efforts for KIPP’s expansion in Philadelphia. Under his leadership KIPP was the only school to obtain two new charters in 2014 (adding to KIPP’s other 4 schools in the city).In 2014 and 2015, Mr. Bass was tapped by the Philadelphia Eagles to be one of their Instructional Consultants. In this role, he provided Professional Development to the Eagles coaching staff and directly supported the Offensive Coordinator, Special Teams Coach, Running Backs Coach, and Inside Linebackers. In 2016 Mr. Bass was selected as CEO for EastSide Charter School and Family Foundations. In 2017 Family Foundations changed its name to Charter School of New Castle and both charters joined under the umbrella of Vision Academies. Vision Academies is the only network of charter schools that works with students from kindergarten, through college and into their first career.Other highlights: repeat lecturer at UPENN, Temple, Franklin and Marshall College; Served as instructional consultant for the World Bank, Future Leaders of UK, US Dept. of Education, and other community organizations. Also serves on the Alumni Board for Franklin and Marshall College and leadership for Black Male Educators Convening.

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Tawanda Bond

Red Clay Consolidated School District

Tawanda J. Bond, Ed.D., is Red Clay Consolidated School District’s Director of Equity and Strategic Partnerships, where she is guiding efforts to conceptualize, define, assess, foster and cultivate diversity institutionally and educationally. Dr. Bond is a life-long educator having served as a Special Education teacher, High School Assistant Principal, Middle School Principal and Equity Officer. She began her studies at Temple University where she received her Bachelors, continued at Delaware State University for her Masters and earned her Doctorate from Wilmington University. Her goal is always to provide a resource in supporting governance as it relates to district- and school-based decisions that affect students, employees and community. “I believe that in our global society it is imperative that we promote a culture of diversity and inclusion across all spectrums of the educational landscape. An inclusive community that embraces differences and promotes a culture of diversity gives students and families the opportunities to grow with the individualized tools needed.” Bond also serves as an adjunct in Wilmington University’s Doctoral Program and on Delaware State University Department of Education’s Advanced Advisory Committee, which informs its M.Ed. and Ed.D. Programs. She is a mother of three, grandmother of twin girls and the widow of Delaware State Police Sgt. Rodney H Bond Jr.

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Nate Durant

Freire Charter School Wilmington

Walter “Nate” Durant is currently the Co-Head of School at Freire Charter School in Wilmington. He has been with Freire since 2017 where he started as the Director of Student Activities, in that role he designed, developed, and led the after-school program. Prior to working at Freire, he has worked as an interventionist, classroom teacher and chess coach at various city schools.

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Dr. Evelyn Edney

Early College High School

Dr. Edney thoroughly understands and appreciates secondary education because of her visionary and contemporary leadership in several teaching and administrative positions in secondary schools in Delaware for the past 24 years. In addition, she has worked with intensity, passion and design thinking to create a strong school community that motivates teachers and staff to ensure student achievement. Dr. Edney has served on a number of important boards in the state including the Delaware Women’s Alliance for Sport & Fitness, the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Delaware Association of School Administrators, the Delaware Association of School Principals, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., and Delta Kappa Gamma Educational Sorority International. In addition, Dr. Edney has participated in Vision 2015 Delaware (executive leadership training) and Vision Network (establishing guidelines for student efficacy). 

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Betsy Fleetwood

Colonial School District

Elizabeth “Betsy” Fleetwood calls herself a “Colonial lifer” having attended schools in Colonial as a child, graduating from William Penn in 1992, and working in the district for 24 years. Fleetwood began her career as a teacher but aspired early on to climb the ranks. She headed her department as a history teacher, was William Penn’s first female assistant Athletic Director, and became an Assistant Principal at William Penn in 2006. After opening and serving as the first principal at McCullough Middle School, Fleetwood would go on to become the Director of Human Resources and now serves as the Assistant Superintendent.

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Lynn Fulton

Delaware Department of Education

Lynn Fulton is an Education Specialist at the Delaware Department of Education. In her role at DOE, she coordinates the Dual Language Immersion (DLI) component of the World Language Expansion Initiative, which includes a network of fifty Chinese and Spanish immersion schools. She works with administrators and teachers on a regular basis to build their capacity to implement and sustain effective DLI programs.

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Jalaal Hayes

Elyte Universal Network, LLC

At 22 years old, Dr. Jalaal A. Hayes (also known as Dr. JAH) became the youngest Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry in America. Dr. JAH is also a TEDx Speaker, keynote speaker for renewable energy at the University of Oxford, and selected as an SXSW session speaker in 2020. His passion is to help the youth learn skills obtained in STEM education and applied it for STEM innovation.

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Margie Lopez-White

CEO

As one of the founders of Las Américas ASPIRA Academy, Margie López Waite was instrumental in opening the first dual-language charter school in Delaware. She has been involved with ASPIRA of Delaware as a volunteer and board member since 2004. Margie later transitioned into the head of school role shortly after the school charter was approved in April 2009. Prior to becoming a teacher, Margie worked at MBNA/Bank of America for 16 years. After the merger with Bank of America, Margie decided to pursue her life-long goals and passion in education. She earned her master’s degree in secondary education and school leadership certification from Wilmington University in May 2008. Margie earned her undergraduate degree in marketing from Delaware State University in May 1990. She taught in the Appoquinimink School District as a Spanish teacher.

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Matt Meyers

New Castle County

In 2016, Matt Meyer was a sixth and seventh grade Math teacher when he first ran for public office, defeating a heavily-favored three-term incumbent in a grassroots campaign to serve as the Chief Executive of Delaware’s largest county.In 2020, when COVID-19 threatened the health and safety of Delawareans, Meyer led the county government in taking unprecedented and innovative actions to keep residents safe from the virus, to protect the most vulnerable in our community and to plant the seeds for a strong and fast economic recovery. Meyer led efforts that resulted in Delaware being the first state in the country to offer open, free COVID-19 saliva tests, having provided nearly 300,000 tests to date. New Castle County monitored sewers to identify COVID-19 hotspots quickly and implemented programs to get high speed wifi access to the hardest to reach communities. In two weeks, New Castle County created the largest full-service homeless shelter in state history, converting a 192 room three star hotel into the NCC Hope Center. The Hope Center today provides dignity and comprehensive services to the most vulnerable Delawareans. In collaboration with New Castle County, entrepreneurs established the Delaware Data Innovation Lab to provide quality data analysis to the state’s most urgent COVID-related problems and Delaware State University established a state-of-the-art next generation lab to do COVID testing faster and at a fraction of the cost of most existing providers.Upon assuming office four years ago, Meyer immediately took historic steps to deliver honest, transparent and efficient governance to the over 560,000 New Castle County residents. The Meyer Administration eliminated wasteful spending and streamlined government expenditures, creating a rapid response JobsNow program that facilitated development projects with over 12,000 jobs. He launched NCC innovates, the most extensive effort to start and grow small business in county history and created GreeNCC, an ambitious agenda to address climate change, preserve open space, bikeable-walkable trails and clean water. His Vacant Spaces to Livable Places initiative rapidly reduced the number of vacant delinquent residential properties by more than 30% while generating millions of dollars of new revenue for schools.Meyer and his staff also created a high school course on local democracy and public leadership that Meyer and his team taught at two New Castle County high schools, Freire and Newark High School.Meyer has the most ethnically diverse senior staff of any government in state history, including the first African American woman to be Chief Administrative Officer in county history and the first African American Police Chief.His community policing initiatives, Hero Help and the Police Mental Health Alliance, have diverted over 500 individuals facing substance abuse and mental illness from incarceration into treatment.

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Juliet Murawski

DDOE

Juliet Murawski graduated from Salisbury University with a Master’s in Business Administration in 2005. She began her career in financial aid almost 15 years ago as a financial aid counselor and Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Salisbury University. For the past 4 years Juliet has administered the state scholarship programs at the Delaware Department of Education, Higher Education Office.

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Dr. Terrance Newton

Warner Elementary School

Dr. Terrance D. Newton possesses more than 17 years experience in education. In addition to eight years teaching in special education and T.A.M. classes, he has engaged the following administrative positions: Behavioral Coordinator at Thomas A. Edison Charter School and Assistant Principal at Kingswood Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, Turnaround Vice Principal at Samuel Daroff Elementary School and Charles Audenried High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Before accepting the position of Principal at Warner Elementary School, Dr. Newton served as an Assistant Principal at Henry B. du Pont Middle School in the Red Clay Consolidated School District and an Educational Consultant at Kingswood Academy in Wilmington, Delaware. Dr. Terrance D. Newton holds a B.A in Criminal Justice with a minor in Sociology from Delaware State University. In 2005, Dr. Newton graduated from Delaware State University with his M.Ed in Special Education. Dr. Newton graduated with his doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Delaware State University at the Wilmington Campus. Dr. Newton made history by graduating in the first Delaware State University Wilmington campus doctoral cohort. Additionally, Dr. Newton is certified/ licensed as a K-12 Principal/Assistant Principal and Special Education teacher, as well as School Leader I & II (Asst. Superintendent/Superintendent) in Delaware. Dr. Newton is also trained in Diversity/Multi-Cultural Education and Sexual Harassment. Professionally, Dr. Newton has been active in the Association for Elementary and Secondary School Principals and served as a member on the Delaware Council Mentor Committee. Dr. Newton is also a member of the National Association on the Prevention of School Violence and has worked as a Youth Rehabilitator Counselor at the New Castle County Detention Center for adjudicated juveniles. On a personal note, Dr. Newton was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware where he grew up in a low-income community. Through bad decision making in a tough community, Dr. Newton was shot twice: once in the leg and in the arm. He was able to overcome his situation through the support of his mother, Marie L. Hammond-Newton, and by surrounding himself with positive people. In 1994, Dr. Newton was offered a football scholarship from Coach William Collick. Due to the combined influences of both Coach Collick and Delaware State University, Dr. Newton persevered to become a positive, productive citizen. Grateful for his success, Dr. Newton goes back in his community to help others. He compares himself with Harriet Tubman. “I escaped the traps of the ghetto and now I want to go and help others escape to become successful”. 

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Dr. Salome Thomas-EL

Thomas Edison Charter School

Salome Thomas-EL is an award-winning teacher and principal, and internationally recognized speaker and educator. Principal EL believes that resilient leaders make courageous decisions, take risks, and challenge the status quo. They are able to bounce back from adversity to become innovative and transformational to ensure all teachers and students achieve their dreams, no matter the odds. Transformational leaders shift mindsets and inspire others to effect change. In his thought-provoking presentations, Principal EL shares how we can change school cultures and foster a positive school climate so teachers and leaders can focus on the protective processes that build resilience in all of our students.Principal EL is currently a K-8 school leader in Wilmington, Delaware and speaks to groups around the world. He has addressed over 100,000 teachers, administrators, school staff, board members, parents, students and community members in the United States, Canada, Nigeria, Trinidad, England, Jamaica, and The Virgin Islands. Principal EL is the author of two best-selling books and frequently appears on The Dr. Oz show, C-SPAN, CNN, and NPR radio. He was honored as an “Inspiring American Icon” in Reader’s Digest Magazine and appeared on the Oprah Radio Network.