A Strong Advocate for Teachers, Public Education: A spotlight on Cindy Edelman
As a former art history teacher, Cindy Edelman has a passion for education and supporting teachers in the community.
“Teachers need to be shown that they’re valued by the community,” Edelman said. “Teachers need opportunities just like everyone else in a professional role to broaden their opportunities, broaden their teaching practice and exchange ideas with others.”
Edelman joined the board of The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida several years ago and said that action “really changed the trajectory of my philanthropic giving and my awareness in terms of the community and the needs of the community.”
A group of roughly 30 people committed to public education reform launched Quality Education for All, a 10-year initiative created with the intent to invest $200,000 each year for a decade.
At that time, 1 in 4 ninth graders in Jacksonville were not graduating high school within four years, Edelman said.
“We studied national, state and local education policies as it affected the Duval County school system,” she said. “I just learned that there was so much need in the public school system at the time and we also learned that only about 20% of the community was directly involved in the school system.”
They realized there was a strong need for advocacy and getting the entire community involved. And with that, in 2009, the Jacksonville Public Education Fund (JPEF) was born, with Edelman as one of its founding members.
“Since our founding in 2009, she has also been one of our top investors, a steadfast supporter and true champion of our mission and work,” said JPEF Fund Development Director Courtney Weatherby-Hunter.
Day after day, seeing her passion for education reform, Edelman’s husband, Dan, surprised her on her 65th birthday by establishing the Cindy Edelman Excellence in Teaching Fellowship at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida in 2017.
“It’s very humbling, I must say, to have something like this named for you, but obviously it’s also thrilling,” Edelman said. “This kind of work can elevate teachers’ profiles and as a result, impacts students.”
That’s one of the benefits of being able to give back, she added. “It’s like a double gift — a birthday gift, but also a gift to the community,” she said.
JPEF partners with Edelman and The Community Foundation to administer this fellowship that enables teachers to grow their impact on students in their classrooms by pursuing the professional learning opportunities of their dreams, Weatherby-Hunter said. It is open to teachers in grades K-12 in the Duval County Public School system, as well as charter schools.
“At a time when education and the world our students are learning in and teachers are teaching in is changing at a rapid pace, it is important for educators and those who support them to think outside the box to bring innovative, effective practices that will prepare our students for their futures,” Weatherby-Hunter said. “Cindy has been a true partner in impact as we’ve brought this fellowship, which was once a great idea, to life.”
For Edelman, the fellowship is about allowing the teachers to be creative in pursuing their professional development.
“A teacher can be as creative as they wish, and it’s also about paying it forward,” she added.
It’s important that the winners share their experiences and help make an impact on the teachers and students in their school or their cluster (a group of schools in a region).
“If a teacher comes back from one of these kinds of experiences energized and has learned new techniques or has learned something that will help them elevate their teaching, then I think it’s really valuable considering the environment that we live in,” Edelman said.
Edelman and another family member involved in education make up the selection committee, along with other diverse members of the community.
“She helped establish a diverse committee of thought leaders and experts to review the application materials for teachers interested in pursuing the fellowship, serves on the committee herself, and once the decisions are made, she shows up to the teachers’ schools right alongside JPEF to surprise them with the remarkable news that they have been chosen for the fellowship,” Weatherby-Hunter said. “It means so much for the teachers to see her, such an outstanding community leader, so invested in them that she’d take the time to help make these surprise announcements.”
For Edelman, it’s hard to pick a favorite fellowship from all the ones they have awarded over the years.
“They’re all my favorites,” Edelman said. “It’s like children.”
Of course, there are a few that stand out: From the speech pathologist who went to Puerto Rico to participate in a Spanish immersion program to better serve students who are learning English as a second language; to the team of teachers from San Jose Elementary who attended the National Center for Urban School Transformation Symposium in San Diego to develop equity-conscious teaching practices at their school, which has in turn created a more positive and welcoming environment at the school; to a teacher at R.L. Brown Gifted and Talented Academy who plans to develop local urban agricultural programs to increase student and community access to fresh produce by traveling to Tortola to discover ways in which Green VI’s research and work in agricultural science is advancing healthier communities. And the list goes on and on.
“The fellowship has been transformational, and the teachers are grateful to know Cindy Edelman is in their corner,” Weatherby-Hunter said.
Edelman said she is fortunate that her and her husband are able to give back, but they are just two out of the many people in the community who are incredibly generous and support public education.
Those wishing to learn more about the fellowship can visit www.jaxpef.org/edelman.
By Jennifer Jensen
Resident Community News
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