Introducing Mamie Doyle

It’s week two into my tenure here at the Rodel Foundation and I couldn’t be more excited to join the remarkable efforts going on in the Delaware education landscape. I’m happy to share a little bit about myself and my background but look forward to having more one-on-one meetings over the coming weeks and months to get to know and learn from all of the talented people across Delaware engaged in this important work.

I grew up St. Louis and come from a family of life-long educators. Both my parents taught in public schools for a combined number of over 50 years. Growing up in a family of teachers, I saw how hard of a job it truly is – every family vacation, my mother was planning lessons well in to the evening hours and my father’s English literature classes seemed to be a never-ending stream of papers and grading; they were up early, worked late, and never compensated for this extra time. Given this perspective, I wasn’t always convinced I would enter the field of education. However, fast forward 10 years or so, and after spending a year in college working in a rural elementary school in Indiana, alongside families, students and a team of dedicated educators, I understood the many rewards of such a career. It was my senior year and I decided to join Teach For America.

I taught 6th grade in North Philadelphia at a bi-lingual school. It was the hardest experience of my life, but I learned two incredibly valuable lessons that I carry with me today – 1) the opportunity gap in education between children growing up in poverty and their more affluent peers is absolutely surmountable, and 2) great teachers and leaders are an integral part of the solution.

After my time in the classroom, I spent five years working on staff at Teach For America (TFA) in Philadelphia, supporting nearly 1,000 teachers and alumni leaders across Greater Philadelphia, ensuring we had the local community support to continue to expand our efforts. Following my time at TFA, I went on to the New Jersey Department of Education overseeing the office of Educator Recruitment, Preparation, and Recognition. In that role, I worked with institutes of higher education, teachers, administrators, and alternate route providers to develop new policies for entry into the teaching profession and the development of a framework for accountability for educator preparation providers.

I’m absolutely thrilled to join the team here at Rodel as Senior Director for Policy. I look forward to supporting the efforts of the DDOE, advocacy organizations, and the community of engaged stakeholders to advance our mission to create a world-class education for every Delaware student by 2020.