“Having a variety of roles and leadership development fellowships gave me experience, and the ‘hard-black’ coffee feedback through coaching that helped me grow. In fact, Chipman-Leeks said she still struggles with this sometimes today as she is often the youngest among her peers and has to cater to a variety of stakeholders with conflicting needs. Over a decade, she worked a variety of roles – classroom special education teacher, instructional coach, and various principal roles.įinding her voice as a leader hasn’t always been easy. Her passion for urban education, however, she said, stems from her personal story of growing up in The Bahamas and witnessing different life trajectories in her own community based on schooling. She earned a Master’s degree in special education at New York University, and is currently a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University, studying organizational leadership in the Peabody School of Education and Human Development. That mentality, she said, gave her the courage to open her own school.Ĭhipman-Leeks started her career in education over a decade ago at Spelman College where she majored in child development. Witnessing her mother open a school from the ground up showed Chipman-Leeks that no matter how hard something is, she could do anything she works hard for. She never had a goal of founding a school, but rather creating an environment that “feels inclusive of cultures and values.” She believes that quality education is “one of the most basic human rights and though an unfortunate trend, neighborhood, socioeconomic status, or race should not be an indicator for how successful a child’s future looks.” It’s a school with a focus on “leveling the playing field when it comes to accessing quality education,” said Chipman-Leeks, a 2004 graduate of SAC.
Now, Chipman-Leeks’ is continuing what seems to be a family tradition of education with founding Atlanta Unbound Academy (AUA), a school community to provide a culturally relevant, rigorous, and empowering education to children in Atlanta she also serves as the academy’s principal. Augustine’s College (SAC) for 14 years, and later went on to found Gleniston Centre For Learning, where she worked for 24 years before retiring. Her mother, Roxanne Chipman, taught reading at St. Many members of her family work, or have worked, in education, including her maternal and paternal grandmothers and aunts.
There has never been a time in Alaina Chipman-Leeks’ childhood when education was not emphasized.
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