Ava Fenelus

Certified Harwood Coach
Researcher

Ava has been an educator for almost 20 years.  She fell in love with teaching kids—much to her surprise—during college. In the summers between studying for her B.A. in Black studies at Pomona College, she taught French and dance to middle schoolers, and led summer camps. She entered the classroom in 2007 as a fifth grade generalist student-teacher in Harlem. Upon graduating with her MAT from Teachers College at Columbia University, she moved to the Bronx to teach sixth grade science and social studies. After five years in this role, Ava began to transition into administrative and leadership roles. She was a Dean of Instruction at a middle school in Brooklyn, supporting sixth-eighth grade teachers in Humanities and Science instruction. She currently serves as a Department Chair and Professor of Middle Grades Education at Relay Graduate School of Education. In this role, she leads the design and delivery of practical, powerful instruction for classroom teachers —many of them in their first years in the classroom—to support them in creating caring environments where all children learn joyfully. 

Ava has worked with the Harwood Institute since 2020, starting off as a Getting Started Lab participant, and then continuing to become a certified Community Coach, Community Researcher, Lab Teacher, and Lead Coach for the Alamance County team. She is passionate about this work because of the Institute’s commitment to authentic, community-driven change that results in more justice and more equity in our society. As a product of both Montessori and traditional schools and parents with professional degrees, Ava's work with The Harwood Institute is informed by her acute awareness from an early age about the pervasiveness of systemic and individual inequity and bias. The race- and gender-based discrimination and violence Ava witnessed and experienced was contrasted by the privileges and holistic experiences she was able to have as a result of her parents’ income and being tracked into more advanced classes. This mixed perspective has driven her passion for rooting out and addressing inequity. 

Ava is a lover of reading, the ocean, cooking and eating, and an aspiring gardener. She was born in Southern California, raised in the South, came to adulthood in New York City, and now calls the Midwest home. She is mommy to two humans and the quintessential big sister (cool, slightly bossy).