It was a productive day on Capitol Hill with the COE’s Dr. Olivia Roane.

Dr. Olivia D. Roane, assistant chair of Graduate Teacher Preparation Programs for the College of Education-Graduate, got a lesson in advocacy and politics during “A Day on Capitol Hill” meeting with staffers of Delaware’s congressional delegation.

“The majesty of those halls is very inspiring,” she says. “Being there gives you a different perspective.”

Actually, Dr. Roane and other educators from around the country spent two days on the Hill in June, part of Washington Week, a conference sponsored by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Dr. Roane is president of Delaware’s AACTE chapter.

“The idea was to learn how to advocate for our state chapters and the importance of understanding the points of view of our legislators, even if we disagree with them, because they are the people who make policy,” she says.

Dr. Roane met with the education staff members for Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons, and also had a personal meeting with Carper.

“We talked about the importance of investing in education preparation and about the difficulties we may be facing under the new administration in the White House,” she says. “We talked about teacher quality improvement, the things we think are working, and the things we think require change in education.”

Dr. Roane also had a fruitful discussion with the education staffer for Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester.

“She is going to be working very closely with various constituents to develop various platforms that are important to us,” she says.

Dr. Roane will continue to work with the staff of Delaware’s congressional delegation, as well as state leaders.

“We want to take what we learned on the Hill and bring it home,” she says. “I am extremely excited about that.”