Jolene T. DiBrango was elected executive vice president of New York State United Teachers in April 2017. She oversees NYSUT’s Research and Educational Services Department and the union’s professional development arm, the Education & Learning Trust. She leads NYSUT’s advocacy with the New York State Board of Regents and State Education Department. DiBrango also leads and facilitates NYSUT’s Women’s Committee, which is dedicated to fighting for gender and wage equality and equal access to education and healthcare for all women. DiBrango is devoted to lifting up and supporting women. She is committed to supporting the next generation of women leaders through organizing and mentoring efforts.
DiBrango, a longtime middle school teacher and union leader from the Rochester area, was elected to statewide office after serving three terms as president of the Pittsford District Teachers Association. DiBrango is dedicated to finding solutions to the teacher shortage and teacher diversity challenges facing our schools. She spearheaded NYSUT’s Take a Look at Teaching initiative, a union-led effort to elevate the teaching profession, increase the number of students and career changers entering teaching, improve diversity in the education workforce, and expand P-12/Higher Ed partnerships to enhance teacher recruitment and support new teachers.
She also served as one of three active teacher-members on the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System Board from 2014–17.
A vice president and executive board member of the New York State AFL-CIO, DiBrango is a graduate of the NYSUT Leadership Institute and attended the New York State AFL-CIO Cornell Union Leadership Institute. She was elected as an American Federation of Teachers vice president in October 2017, serving on the AFT Teachers Programs & Policy Executive Council and AFT’s Teacher Diversity Advisory Panel.
DiBrango worked as a School-Related Professional for two years before she began her teaching career in 1994 in the Canandaigua City School District and has spent the majority of her career in the Pittsford Central School District teaching sixth grade. A graduate of Mohawk Valley Community College, SUNY Oswego and Nazareth College, DiBrango holds teaching certificates in elementary education, reading and business education.
Email: Jolene.DiBrango@nysut.org
January 2023
