Dr. Jenai Ali Emmel is the founder and chief learning officer at Organizational Design Partners and brings 23 years of expertise and passion for public education. She began her career as a high school English teacher and has held a variety of capacity-building roles including director of professional development and principal supervisor. In both traditional districts and charter settings, she has led intrapreneurial design efforts designed to create innovation within existing operations. She has led significant systems-level redesign, school and district evaluation, and large group facilitation and professional development to build additional capacity for learning at scale. She has dedicated her career to supporting the most vulnerable school communities and has contributed extensively to change efforts in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Memphis, Salt Lake City, and Washington D.C. Jenai was a 2000 Teach for America corps member and was selected as the Georgia Teacher of the Year by Junior Achievement in 2003. She has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Language from the University of Virginia, a master’s in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California. She is a 2023 50 Can National Voices Fellow and the founder and president of Center for Education News.  She lives in New Mexico with her dog Luca and enjoys photography and fine art, sailing, skiing, tennis, world travel, and spending time with her family.