Ayanna Gore

Ayanna L. Gore was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. With a long line of baptist ministers, Sunday school teachers and teacher aides in her family, education has always been the focus despite the fact that she earned a college degree before any siblings or her parents. She earned her Bachelors of Science degree in Biology with a minor in Psychology of Crime and Justice from Loyola University—Chicago. She entered education after joining Teach For America as a high school science instructor and continued her work in education for the last 10 years. Her passions lie within mindset coaching, classroom management, curriculum/instructional development and diversity, equity and inclusion within the school system. She is completing her doctorate in Educational Leadership at DePaul University where she is studying the impacts of novice Black teachers within Urban Schools. She focuses on providing support to educators with a cultural competency lens. Her motto is, "Where teachers learn, students learn!" Currently, she is the School Director for CICS ChicagoQuest. Here, she led turnaround efforts in 2016 which successfully moved the school from off of the Chicago Public Schools warning list. In her free time, she enjoys teaching bootcamp fitness classes and coaching weight loss challenges.