Thena joined the Foundation in 2021 as its Program Director overseeing the foundation’s portfolios in the Southern part of the United States. She was promoted to Vice President of Programs in 2023.
Thena is a racial justice lawyer with over a decade of experience advancing community-led efforts for education and youth justice. Previously, she served as Program Officer at Communities for Just Schools Fund, a national donor collaborative, where she managed a grants portfolio of grassroots community organizations leading local and national efforts for education justice and an end to the criminalization of Black and Brown youth in schools and communities.
Prior to her work with Communities for Just Schools Fund, Thena served as Director of the Advancement Project’s Opportunity to Learn Program, supporting local and state-based organizing campaigns to end the school-to- prison pipeline. Thena also served as Executive Director of Rethink, a New Orleans-based youth organizing and leadership organization. Earlier in her career, Thena served as a Staff Attorney for the New Orleans office of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Thena is currently an adjunct professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, teaching the Education Justice & Civil Rights Seminar. She is a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and Hampton University in Virginia.
