Long before Jacqueline Culton was chosen by voters to serve as a Duncanville ISD Board Trustee, she regularly mentored, tutored and supported children and young adults through church and community activism.
“I just have a love for students and young minds. I’ve always been interested in helping young people achieve their full potential,” Ms. Culton said. “No matter their economic status or their race or intellectual ability or disability, I just want to see every student perform at their highest potential.”
Ms. Culton pairs her passion for education and civic purpose with her analytical thinking.
You’ll regularly find Ms. Culton at Duncanville ISD Board of Trustee meetings asking meticulous questions and providing insight from her perspective from more than 30 years of municipal engineering and budget planning.
Ms. Culton is a registered civil engineer and is the city of Duncanville’s Assistant Director of Public Works. She credits her administrative knowledge and familiarity with capital infrastructure as assets that have given her a unique view as a school board trustee.
Ms. Culton has lived in Duncanville for 10 years, but is just 12 miles from where she grew up in Dallas. Her mother was a nurse and her father was employed in the City of Dallas Parks department, where he was a coach who worked with young people across various sports programs.
Growing up, Ms. Culton said she regularly saw her parents giving back, such as using household money to buy uniforms for the track team her father coached.
“I was raised with the belief that you have an obligation to make the world a better place, to give and not just be a taker,” Ms. Culton said.
Ms. Culton is very proud that her only child carries that same belief. Her son is a graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Logistics and Intermodal Transportation. He has had a successful career in the international shipping arena and is married to a marine engineer. They have two children under the age of six. Ms. Culton’s grandchildren are the “apples of her eye,” which is another reason she is so interested in ensuring current and future generations of children receive an excellent education so they can live enriching and productive lives.
Ms. Culton is a board member for Brand New Life Ministries, has volunteered as a Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) officer, been a children’s youth church director at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, supported vacation bible school programs and includes etiquette classes among some of her service efforts.
“When you invest in children, you can never go wrong” Ms. Culton said. “I’ve always wanted to see every student reach their full potential and I know education is a path to do just that.”
“A lot of times a good education is all we have to fall back on,” she said. “Maybe our families didn’t have money to provide or business to set us up with, but if you have a good education, you can take care of yourself, your family and give back to the community.”