Core Steering Council

Dr. Shelley Rouser is the Chairperson for the Education Department at Delaware State University as well as an Associate Professor. Dr. Rouser is also a proud alumni of DSU. She has 25 years of experience in K-12 education, as a teacher and coach the first half of her career, and as an administrator at the district and state levels the second half of her career in public education. Prior to joining DSU in August 2018, she served as the Director of K-12 Initiatives and Educator Engagement at the Delaware Department of Education where she led the Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development workgroup overseeing up to nine content areas and leading the State’s college and career ready standards implementation efforts through statewide initiatives such as Common Ground for the Common Core, the NextGen Teacher Leader Project, and Reimagining Professional Learning Grants, to name a few. Prior to working with the Department of Education she was the Supervisor of Instruction in New Castle County Vocational Technical School district. As a former middle and high school teacher, teacher leader, content area specialist, and central office administrator, Dr. Rouser is experienced with the challenges of managing a major change effort as well as the systems work it takes to build capacity to navigate such adaptive changes. In her role of Education Department Chair, Dr. Rouser brings her extensive experience with curriculum, instruction and professional development as well as the relationships with educators across the state to enhance DSU programs. She professional mantra is captured in Gandhi’s quote, “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” In her first year, Dr. Rouser has worked with DSU’s education faculty to develop a five year strategic plan focused on recruitment efforts (particularly males into teaching), strengthening the pipeline between regional high schools and DSU and from DSU into regional districts, meeting and exceeding accreditation expectations, and revitalizing graduate programming.

Councilman Jea P. Street is a graduate of Wilmington High School and the University of Delaware.

From 1974 to 1981 Mr. Street served as Executive Director of the Parent Educational Resource Center where he was charged with the responsibility of helping to prepare City parents and students for the implementation of court ordered school desegregation. During this period he became a well-established student advocate.

In 1988, Street became chairman of the Coalition to Save Our Children, representing City children in the school desegregation litigation and served in that capacity until 1996 when the court order was officially lifted.

In 2004, Street was elected as New Castle County Councilman for the 10th District and serves as Co-Chairman of Public Safety. As Councilman, he has continued his advocacy work on behalf of children. He has filed federal and state complaints against the Christina and Colonial School Districts and the State Board of Education. In 2007, he worked very closely with Wilmington City Council and the Mayor as the City and five parents successfully sued the Christina School district to ensure that city schools were not closed. Street fought vigorously for the Route 9 Library from 2005 to 2017 when the library was opened. Most recently, he sponsored legislation that limits the height of the Minquadale Landfill to 140 feet.

Councilman Street served as Executive Director of Hilltop Lutheran Neighborhood Center from 1981 to 1992 and from 1995 to 2017. In 2018, he served as Development Director until he retired in December. During his tenure as Executive Director, the center completed over $7 million in renovation and expansion projects, the budget increased from seventy thousand dollars annually to its current $2.1 million. In 2016, the center received the State of Delaware’s highest rating of five stars as a provider of early care and education and school age services.

From 1993 to 1995 he served as Director of Wilmington Parks and Recreation.

Street is currently the President of Delawareans for Educational Opportunity (DEO). On January 16, 2018, DEO in conjunction with the Delaware NAACP State Conference of Branches, sued the State of Delaware and all three of its counties to obtain appropriate funding for all students in the State of Delaware’s Public Schools. This lawsuit is currently pending in the Chancery Court.

Senator Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman was elected to the State Senate in November 2018 and represents communities in and surrounding central and west Wilmington. Her district is one of the most diverse and densely populated in Delaware. She was raised in Wilmington’s Cool Spring neighborhood.

Sen. Lockman has long been an advocate for education reform, originally through her local Parent Teacher Association and then as a member of the Wilmington Education Advisory Committee (WEAC). When WEAC established the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission (WEIC) – which focused on better serving Wilmington’s public school students through equity-focused funding – Lockman became the group’s Vice Chair.

Sen. Lockman entered community service through Public Allies Delaware in 2004, where she served as Program Manager for the Hearts & Minds Film Initiative of Serviam Media. When her daughter enrolled in kindergarten at Highlands Elementary School, Sen. Lockman joined the Parent Teacher Association and served as the group’s president from 2010-2013.

Sen. Lockman continues to fight for reforming public education, most recently leading a grassroots organizing effort to develop community leadership on this issue as the director of the Parent Advisory Council on Education (PACE) initiative at the Christina Cultural Arts Center. The initiative pursues a vision to improve effective participation in the public education system to strengthen it for students living in the city of Wilmington with a focus on building recognized parent leadership, driven by local outreach and a community-built advocacy agenda