Published in ConnectED Newsletter - Volume 8 - Issue 2 - December 2024
Daniel R. Simonette has served as Assistant to the Director of Finance and Operations since March of 2022. He holds a B.A. in political science and a minor in history from CCNY.
Born and raised in New York City, service to others and the community has been a family commitment ingrained in Daniel since childhood and formalized through his high school Jesuit education. Whether running or working on political campaigns to increase the numbers of historically underrepresented BIPOC, female, and LGBTQ+ qualified candidates to achieve elected office, serving as a paralegal for his father and mother on election law matters to help ensure these candidates got proper ballot access, or even handling web development, technology matters, and day-of-show productions in his mother’s media consulting firm to help ensure that there are more diverse messages in the media and that media improves how it portrays women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, the common thread has been a commitment to serving a larger purpose with a goal of empowering communities that have been historically oppressed, misrepresented, and marginalized.
Daniel sees his work at the CCNY School of Education as a natural continuation of his own mission, since education is the key to empowering and giving a voice to students and ultimately communities who often feel powerless and invisible. Believing every person plays an important part in the whole, he sees his contribution as facilitating the School of Education’s goal to prepare the most qualified and committed teachers and school leaders to not only teach and lead, but to be role models, sounding boards, and inspiration, and to breathe life into the children of our city.
Having worked almost three years in the School of Education, Daniel has realized the value of students seeing teachers who look like them in the classrooms and how that connects to their future success. As a result, he is putting his money where his mouth is and is beginning his master’s degree in education this spring.
Last Updated: 12/19/2024 13:13