Meet Elona

Elona Street-Stewart, Chair of the Saint Paul School Board of Education, was elected in 2001, becoming the first American Indian to serve on an urban school district in Minnesota. Employed since 1992 as program staff for Racial Ethnic Ministries and Community Empowerment in MN, WI, IA, ND, SD, NE, and MT for the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Presbyterian Church USA. In 2001, she completed 6 years as staff for the St. Paul/Ramsey County Children’s Initiative for Family Center Development and Special Projects. Recognized for thirty years as a national leader on racism, affirmative action, women and family issues, and public policy, she remains active in local early childhood initiatives, leadership development, and parent support programs.

Currently, she is also chair of the Minnesota Education Partnership (MMEP), the American Indian Family Center in president-elect of the national American Indian Alaska Native School Board Caucus. Other local responsibilities include St. Paul Children’s Collaborative; Twin Cities Healthy Start addressing African-American and American Indian infant mortality and health disparities; The Saint Paul Foundation’s anti-racism advisory committee; American Indians in Unity for Housing; the Friends of the Library and founding member of the St. Paul Early Language and Literacy Collaborative (SPELL). Elona volunteers weekly in schools. She is an elder and member of Dayton Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Honored to be the 1999 MN Indian Education Association Parent of the Year, Elona (Delaware, Nanticoke) and spouse Rev. David Stewart have four children ages 28-18 and one grandchild. An Upward Bound student from Philadelphia, she received her BA in anthropology from Occidental College and is involved today in efforts to develop a statewide college access network.

Elona moved to Minnesota in 1985 and immediately engaged with several boards and agencies addressing education, racism, and poverty. Since then, she has served continuously on a number of local, state, regional, and national organizations focused on social injustice issues. Her governance experience and advocacy connections have been a benefit to students, families, and community organizations. Elona has been a mentor and contributor in the process of shifting decision making processes to underrepresented or marginalized people while establishing 501c3 structures for family centers as well as leading training efforts for site council operations in schools. She has served in numerous positions across the St. Paul School District that resulted in policy change and improved access and opportunity for students of color, immigrant and refugee families, and students in poverty.

Her commitment to equal opportunity, fair representation, open communication and respectful environments is deeply grounded. She has decades of professional expertise in dismantling racism as the harbinger of persistent social and economic disparities. She has first-hand knowledge of the complicated federal requirements and executive orders regarding American Indian Education Act affecting urban, BIA, and rural school districts. While on the school board, she has served as clerk, vice chair, and subcommittee chair.