Tenisha "AVA" Williams

Founder and CEO 

Tenisha “Ava” Williams is an experienced consultant and project manager with expertise in capacity building, organizational assessment, strategic planning, and change management. Tenisha has led project teams in these key service areas with a focus on addressing inequities for a variety of clients including the Associated Black Charities, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (NC), Impact Florida (FL), the United Negro College Fund, and Instruction Partners national office. Recent projects include supporting the reopening planning and implementation team at Tulsa Public Schools as they navigated the competing demands of reenvisioning transformative and equitable educational structures amidst the pandemic, and leading teams of consultants to uncover and address the root causes of systemic inequities through equity assessments and strategic plans for Teach for America’s national office, Vancouver Public Schools (WA), San Diego County (CA), and Summit County (OH). 

Previously, Ava was a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton on the U.S. Air Force “High-Velocity Analysis Project” at the Pentagon. As a team lead, she trained and led numerous operational analyses to optimize manpower and equipment required to meet potential future wartime demands in a cost-effective, risk-minimizing manner. In recognition of this work at Booz Allen Hamilton, she was awarded the BEYA Modern-Day Technology Leader Award. An elite award for innovators and members of high-tech programs, fulfilling the ever-changing needs to help keep the U.S. strong, competitive, and safe in the decades ahead.

Ava received her bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the George Washington University and a master’s in engineering management from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Outside of her professional work, she has served as an executive board member for the National Society of Black Engineers Washington, DC Professionals Chapter. She has also served as an advisor on the Montgomery County Engineering Program Advisory Committee, an initiative helping to strengthen the county’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) leadership pipeline. In her spare time, Tenisha loves flying planes and podcasting.