Shantel Palacio

Shantel Palacio is the Chief of Staff of the Brooklyn South NYCDOE Borough Office, where she supports Brooklyn South’s Executive Superintendent, Executive Director and 5 Superintendencies with significant discretion and decision-making authority to ensure the adequate provision of coordinated support services to nearly 200 schools. With a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Palacio has worked on policy for the NYC Department of Education for over seven years.

Shantel is also the founder of Brownsvillain LLC, a platform that she uses to capture and preserve local stories and empower residents of her community. Her childhood desire was to become a journalist, and she earned her undergraduate degree in Communication at Bryant University. With few technical skills but feeling compelled to tell the crucial story of her neighborhood, she rallied friends, volunteers and whatever resources were available to launch her website Brownsvillain.

At a more personal level, community activism is an imperative in Palacio’s life. Without question, she identifies with the defiance and pride of the distinctly Brownsville motto, “Never Ran, Never Will.” When building her own success story she felt there was no option: it is too important for local kids to see themselves in members of the community; they need to know they can amount to something more than the low-expectation stereotypes reinforced by outsiders, something that must be reinforced throughout the community.

Palacio is also working on a PhD in Education Policy with the goal of improving opportunities for communities like Brownsville. Through her research, she hopes to continue to explore intersections between politics, social capital in low income communities and policies that successfully reduce both achievement and opportunity gaps in education.