Danielle Michelle DeJesus
Editor’s note: DeJesus participated in a phone interview with Oviedo Community News.
Age: 29
Where they live: Altamonte Springs
Where they work: Special education teacher (Behavior Circle) at Milwee Middle School.
Prior work experience: Originally going to school for International Diplomacy, DeJesus wanted to be a history teacher but ended up in special education. Prior to teaching she was working in human resources and payroll in Lake Mary and worked at Jackson Heights Middle School.
Prior political experience: DeJesus is an active union member on a national, state and local level. Her political rallying and lobbying experience is through the teachers union.
The platform they’re running on: Education is one of DeJesus’ biggest platforms as Seminole County is number one in the state and she said she would like it to continue that way. She is also running on local issues like misplaced funds, lack of transparency, infrastructure and useless construction. “There are just a lot of issues that we can improve on,” DeJesus said.
Why they are running: DeJesus gained her political inspiration for serving her community from her grandfather, Juan Ramon Ortiz, who passed away. He was a politically active from Puerto Rico and lived through the Civil Rights Movement and met former President John F. Kennedy. She said that the state of the world right now, especially in the United States, pushed her to run. “There’s no better time than right now,” DeJesus said. Last year, she spoke at one of the educational committees in Tallahassee which she said was the moment that she realized that people who do not understand what is happening inside a classroom should not be controlling it.
Link to their website: DeJesus said her website is not ready yet. DeJesus’ LinkedIn
Fun fact about the candidate: Dejesus is a big theme park enthusiast as she used to work at Universal’s Islands of Adventure during college as an attraction runner. She mainly ran Dudley DoRight’s Ripsaw Falls, occasionally Skull Island: Reign of Kong and opened Diagon Alley.
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