Jacqueline DeWalt, the very passionate education advocate who led the University of Wisconsin-Madison PEOPLE program for many years, passed away last night, according to her family.
Dewalt was the director of External Relations, Partnerships, and Development for the Division of Diversity Equity and Educational Achievement where she directed external relations, partnerships, and development activities for that division including campus-wide diversity efforts and eight major diversity pipeline programs.
Originally from Milwaukee, DeWalt earned her bachelor’s of science in education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her master’s degree in cultural anthropology – also at UW-Madison.
DeWalt was well known as the longtime director of the UW PEOPLE program, a pre-college pipeline for students of color and low-income students, most of whom are the first in their families to potentially attend college. PEOPLE accepts highly motivated students into a rigorous program to build study skills, explore and strengthen academic and career interests, and gain a positive experience on a world-class campus.
“My vision has always been to fully actualize the Wisconsin Idea by ensuring that the benevolence of the university-relative to teaching, learning, and service-reaches historically under-represented students in underserved communities,” DeWalt said, quoted in a press release sent out by UW-Madison today. “I believe that access to such valuable resources will ensure that more of these students graduate globally competitive and prepared to lead in the humanities, STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math), entrepreneurship and international relations, thus mobilizing capacity and actively contributing to the economic development of the state of Wisconsin and the nation at large.”
