Educator Excellence

Keeley M. Powell, Ed.D., serves as the associate secretary of Educator Excellence at the Delaware Department of Education, where she has worked since 2023. In this role, Dr. Powell leads the Educator Excellence team, which is responsible for strengthening and sustaining a high-quality, diverse educator workforce across the state.

The Educator Excellence team leads key efforts to recruit, prepare, and retain excellent educators for Delaware’s public schools. Their work includes expanding Grow Your Own programs, registered teacher apprenticeships, and year-long teacher residencies. The team also designs and scales high-quality educator induction programs, manages educator preparation program approvals and continuous improvement, supports the development of a statewide teacher career ladder, strengthens school leadership pipelines, and oversees the implementation of Delaware’s educator evaluation systems.

Dr. Powell previously worked in higher education administration for 18 years in several positions promoting student success and retention. Prior to joining DDOE, she was the senior assistant dean for student services in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of Delaware. In her previous role, she served as an expert on university academic policy and worked collaboratively with faculty to ensure academic success for students. In addition to her professional experience in higher education administration, she also served as an elected member of the Christina School Board, including board president for three years.