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Jerell Blakeley
Director of Government, Community, and Racial and Social Justice for Indiana's largest labor union
A native of Trenton, NJ, Jerell is the Director of Government, Community, and Racial and Social Justice for Indiana’s largest union, the Indiana State Teachers Association, and serves as an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, Indiana University in Indianapolis and Ivy Tech Community College. He is an alumnus of Rutgers University-New Brunswick’s Graduate School of Education, where he earned an Ed.M. in the Social & Philosophical Foundations of Education as an Eagleton-Martin Fellow and NJ K-12 Teacher of Social Studies certification, and Howard University, where he earned a degree in History.
A 2016 New Leaders Council-NJ Fellow and 2021 Lead NJ Fellow, Jerell is a member of the Governmental Affairs Society of Indiana, the Howard University Alumni Association, the NAACP, and is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha and Prince Hall Masonic fraternities.
Formerly a member of the NJEA and the United Steelworkers unions, Jerell is a member of the American Association of University Professors. He has been invited to share his counsel and insight to esteemed organizations, including the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Isles, New Leaders Council, Lead NJ, the NJ Working Families Party, NJ Black Issues Convention, Princeton University’s Pace Center, Rider University, the National Council of Urban Education Associations, Housing and Community Development Network of NJ, Indiana Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Indiana Black Expo, NJ State Democratic Party, and chapters of Jack & Jill, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Alpha Phi Alpha and Omega Psi Phi. His writings and op-eds have been published by the HBCU Digest, NJEA Review, NJ Spotlight, & Star-Ledger.
Honored by the Black Enterprise magazine, the Trenton Council of Civic Associations & the Trenton branches of the NAACP & Zeta Phi Beta for his public and community service, Jerell is a prolific board member & currently serves on the boards of Lawrence, IN Redevelopment Commission, Building One America, the Governmental Affairs Society of Indiana, the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, the Children’s Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana, the Dean’s Advisory Council for the School of Education at Indiana University in Indianapolis and the National Association of Political and Legislative Specialists for Education.
A committed public servant, Jerell served as an At-Large member of the Trenton, NJ City Council from 2018-2022. In 2020, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes reappointed Jerell to his second 5-year term as a board member of the Mercer County Board of Social Services, where he served as Vice Chairman.
