AYANNA A. KING
Ayanna A. King is a native of Pittsburgh, PA and the former CEO for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Virginia Peninsula. She attended the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public & International Affairs (GSPIA) to complete her Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning (M.U.R.P.) with a specialization in State and Local Development and a certification in Non-profit Management. She is the former Director for the Office of Environmental Advocate for Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP). During her tenure, Ayanna organized Pennsylvania’s 1st Statewide Environmental Justice Conference in April 2009, received one of US EPA’s 1st State Environmental Justice Cooperative Agreement, and increased awareness of Environmental Justice by fifty percent within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
She is the founder of the Pittsburgh Transportation Equity Project and the Youth Policy Institute, known as the first African American social justice organization in Pittsburgh, PA. This project was featured in Highway Robbery: Transportation Racism & New Routes to Equity, Chapter six: Transit Activism in Steel Town co-authored by Ayanna A. King and Brian Nogrady, and the author of the article in Race, Poverty, and the Environment Journal Winter 2004/2005: EJ Leading the Way, Why Communities Must Initiate Environmental Research.
Ayanna is a mentor for youth and young professionals, a community development and nonprofit practitioner, and an environmental/social justice advocate who is extremely passionate and conscious about building sustainable Black Communities for Black People .