About me
Charlene Russell-Tucker is the Deputy Commissioner of Education for the
Connecticut State Department of Education, a role in which she oversees
educational supports and wellness priorities. Prior to her appointment as
Deputy Commissioner in November 2019, she served as Chief Operating Officer
and Division Chief for the Department's Office of Student Supports and
Organizational Effectiveness. She also served as Associate Commissioner of
Education and Bureau Chief within the Department overseeing a portfolio of
programs and services that included student health, nutrition and safety, adult
education, family and community engagement, afterschool programs,
McKinney Vento homeless education initiatives, special education, magnet and
charter schools, regional school choice programming and the agency-wide
results-based accountability initiatives. She is a performance-driven and visionary education leader with
over 20 years’ experience in successfully leveraging the inter-connectedness of the social, emotional,
physical and mental health of students and their families as foundations for positive school and life
outcomes. She passionately supports family and community engagement in education and leads school
attendance and school discipline initiatives with intensive focus on equity and diversity.
Ms. Russell-Tucker participates on various state and national committees; she is co-chair of the
Connecticut General Assembly Committee on Children Strategic Action Group on Chronic Absence, and
has served as expert panel member on committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering
and Medicine. She has also served in the role of president of the Connecticut Academy of Nutrition and
Dietetics and as a member of the national Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Ms. Russell-Tucker has
extensive teaching experience as an adjunct faculty member at Albertus Magnus College School of New
Dimensions, an accelerated degree program. She gives generously of her time on local boards.
In 2015, Ms. Russell-Tucker was named to the inaugural class of 100 Women of Color in Connecticut. In
2018, she was welcomed to the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading's Council of Champions. On a
personal note, Ms. Russell-Tucker believes in finding and fulfilling one’s life’s purpose.
