Ariette Agnew

Ariette Agnew is America Forward’s Advocacy Manager. Ariette helps lead America Forward’s early childhood care and education, K-12 education, youth mental health and wellbeing, and national service policy and advocacy work. She also co-leads the America Forward Advocacy Institute, a hands-on training Institute that equips America Forward Coalition members with the knowledge and skills they need to become better, bolder advocates.

Ariette’s north star of serving low-income children and families lit her path from policy work, to teaching, to advocacy work with America Forward. Prior to her current role, Ariette was a Teach For America Corps member and kindergarten and first grade teacher in Houston, Texas. Before her teaching career, Ariette worked for the U.S. Department of Education, focusing on President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative. Ariette also worked for Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, advocating for affordable healthcare for uninsured Texans. While earning her masters degree, Ariette interned at the National Black Child Development Institute and served as a graduate analyst for the Obama Foundation, working specifically on program evaluation and engagement for the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance.

Ariette holds a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a Master in Education from Johns Hopkins University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin.