Daniela Mancusi-Shreve’s parents come from South Philadelphia. While she herself was born in Hammond, she spent her formative years growing up on the East Coast — specifically, southern New Jersey. There she grew up and became close with many of her cousins, aunts, and uncles, all of whom share the same Italian heritage. The steel mills nearby in the Region were booming in the 1970s, presenting more work opportunities for her father, so when she was in elementary school, the family moved back to the Midwest and stayed. She’s part of Crown Point High School’s graduating class of 1986.
Mancusi-Shreve is a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington (IUB). She started studying there as a political-science major, inspired by her experiences watching C-SPAN all throughout her childhood. She changed her focus to history, which eventually evolved into her switching to earn a degree in social studies education. Her teaching license is in secondary education, yet her first official teaching job was in an English as a Second Language (ESL) environment, so she was able to spend two summers in an intensive language program for exchange students coming from South American and European countries.
Mancusi-Shreve often cites these environments as reasons for why she sought to pursue teaching for the rest of her life. These reasons and the births of her children led her to where she is today.
“I had just gotten my degree when I started working in ESL settings, and those were awesome experiences, and might’ve been the best teaching experiences I’ve ever had. I wanted to do more after that,” she said. “Later in life, after having children, I connected to adult education.”
Mancusi-Shreve now works as both a work-ethic project manager for the Center of Workforce Innovations and an adult-education instructor for Neighbors’ Educational Opportunities (NEO). She regularly does advocacy work, too, to bring more attention to adult education and teaching others how to communicate with their legislators, among other things.
Mancusi-Shreve’s role at the Center of Workforce Innovations entails working in collaboration with over 30 of the local high schools in Northwest Indiana to embed relevant work-ethic courses and certification programs into their curricula. Students then have a chance to earn themselves a regional work-ethic certificate supported by the Northwest Indiana Workforce Board.
As for her other occupation, two of the learning centers at which she teaches locally, the Chesterton Adult Learning Center and the Valparaiso Adult Learning Center, were picked up by NEO, and so she’s formally been associated with the non-profit since January.
“Making a difference in the lives of others is important to me. We all come from different walks of life, and some of us grow up in loving homes where we see our parents are motivated, punctual, and follow employers’ expectations. Many students, especially in the adult-education world, don’t grow up in loving homes,” she said. “These students need support, and I get to provide them with it.”
The Indiana Association for Adult and Continuing Education (IAACE) awarded Mancusi-Shreve the Outstanding Adult Educator award in 2023. That same year, she had the honor of working with Mallory Balch, the winner of the National Adult Learner of the Year distinction. The two developed a meaningful relationship.
Words like the one Balch used surely go a long way for someone like Mancusi-Shreve, who lives by a certain statement from Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax,” the first word of which even appears on her car’s license plate. The quote as a whole ultimately captures what she stands for as an educator, and it’s helped her understand the strength of her own words.
“‘Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.’ I care about the people I help, their futures, and their quality of life. I don’t give up on them,” she said. “When I myself first said, ‘Embrace diversity, be an influencer, and invest in the change you seek,’ I was thinking about communities — their uniqueness and strengths — and how diversity leads to balance, which promotes healthy living.”
Mancusi-Shreve has had many of her own statements heard or read by others. She’s been published in academic journals, one of her more recent articles focusing on a day in the life of an advocate. She also participated in a fellowship that began last year and ended this spring through the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE).
A lifetime Philadelphia Phillies fan through and through, Mancusi-Shreve tries to catch a game at Citizens Bank Park when she can. She’s so passionate about the team that she joined a fantasy-baseball league for the 2024 season, most of the players on her team being from the Phillies. Beyond baseball, she loves the calm of any beach and always tells people that when she grows up, she wants to be a full-time beach bum. She’s an avid Parrot Head, or die-hard Jimmy Buffett fan, and is involved with a group of them here in the Region. They’ve organized beach cleanups and other charity events.
The vibrancy of Valparaiso’s community is something that appeals to Mancusi-Shreve. She’s well aware of its many widely accessible resources, including public transportation, and she’s come to see that its leaders directly contribute to developing the area further.
“I enjoy the diversity and the openness among some of our community leaders. I like that there’s access to adult education to improve lives,” she said. “The V-Line is a real plus here, and we have these green spaces, community concerts, and cultural events. It’s a pretty cool place.”