Jerell Blakeley

A native of Trenton, NJ, and a graduate of Trenton Central High School, Jerell Blakeley is an alumnus of Howard University, where he earned a degree in History with minors in Political Science and Sociology.

Presently, Jerell is the Inaugural Director of Government, Community, and Racial and Social Justice for Indiana's largest labor union, the Indiana State Teachers Association, is a Lecturer at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, and is a doctoral student at Indiana University-Bloomington.

Jerell is an alumnus of Rutgers University-New Brunswick's Graduate School of Education, where he earned an Ed.M. in the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education as an Eagleton-Martin Fellow and his permanent NJ K-12 Teacher of Social Studies certification from the Graduate School's Center for Effective School Practices.

A 2016 New Leaders Council-NJ Fellow and 2021 Lead NJ Fellow, Jerell is a member of the Howard University Alumni Association, the NAACP, and is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha and Prince Hall Masonic fraternities.

Formerly an active 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 several esteemed organizations, including Rutgers’s Eagleton Institute of Politics, Isles, the New Leaders Council, Lead NJ, the NJ Working Families Party, the NJ Black Issue Convention, Princeton University's Pace Center, Rider University, the National Council of Urban Education Associations, Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey and the NJ State Democratic Party. His writings and op-eds have been published by the HBCU Digest, NJEA Review, NJ Spotlight, & the Star-Ledger.

Honored by the Trenton Council of Civic Associations and the Trenton branches of the NAACP and Zeta Phi Beta for his public and community service, Jerell was named by Black Enterprise as a Modern Man 100 and has been identified by the Insider NJ publication as one of the 100 most influential African Americans and 100 most influential Millennials in NJ politics.

A consummate public servant, Jerell served as an At-Large member of the Trenton, NJ City Council from 2018-2022.  Jerell was endorsed by the NJEA, United Steelworkers & AFL-CIO during his successful run for public office. 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.  Jerell previously served on the Mercer County Workforce Investment Board. Jerell presently serves on the board of Lead NJ and the Children's Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana.