Dr. Karen Castor Dentel was first elected to the Orange County School Board in August 2018 and was re-elected for a four-year term in 2020. She is an experienced teacher having worked in both Orange County Public Schools and Alachua County Public Schools. She taught students at Dommerich, Audubon Park, Lake Sybelia and Riverdale elementary schools, among others. Dr. Castor Dentel's experience in education is not limited to her understanding of the classroom. She was also elected to the Florida Legislature where she was a big proponent of fairness for our public schools and fought for full funding for our students. In the Legislature, she served on the K-12 Education Subcommittee and the Education Appropriations Subcommittee, in addition to the Economic Development and Tourism, and the Business and Professional Regulation subcommittees.
Following her tenure in the legislature, Dr. Castor Dentel became the Director of Community School Development for the Children's Home Society of Florida. In that capacity, she worked throughout the state to build institutional partnerships to develop full-service community schools with our own Evans High School as the premier model. She was also a member of the UCF Center for Community Schools Advisory Board.
Dr. Castor Dentel values volunteer service to her community and she participates at every level to support school activities. She chaired the Education Committee of the Orange County Regional History Board and chaired the Public Affairs Committee for the Junior League of Greater Orlando. She has been an education policy advocate for Fund Education Now, participated in OCPS Leadership Orange, presented to students during OCPS Teach-In, served on School Advisory Councils and chaperoned many field trips. As a champion of the teaching profession, Dr. Castor Dentel also served on the USF College of Education Anchin Center Board and was an association representative for the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association for many years.
Dr. Castor Dentel is a proud product of Florida public schools having graduated from Chamberlain High School in Tampa. She earned her B.S. degree in Elementary Education from Vanderbilt University, an M.Ed. degree in Literacy Studies from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Florida.
Her two children attended Dommerich Elementary and Maitland Middle School for their public school education. One graduated from Winter Park High in 2019, where the other is still attending.