Alaina Chipman Leeks, founder of Atlanta Unbound Academy, a free public charter school started her career in education over a decade ago at Spelman College where she majored in Child Development. Her passion for urban education however, stems from her personal story of growing up in The Bahamas and witnessing different life trajectories in her own community based on schooling. Alaina’s experience in charter schools has included Special Education Teacher, RTI Coordinator, Assistant Principal and Principal.
Alaina’s passion for constant development led her to be the youngest person selected in her New Leaders for New Schools Aspiring Principals cohort. Alaina was then selected for the KIPP Fisher Fellowship and Building Excellent Schools Fellowship; two highly selective Fellowships that train and develop future school leaders to lead high performing urban schools. Alaina became a turnaround Principal in Brooklyn, NY resulting in increased school culture ratings and outperforming the city and state in both ELA and Math in just one year of her leadership.
Relocating to Atlanta, GA, she worked at the network level coaching and developing school leaders. Alaina has spent years visiting, leading, and learning from high performing urban charter schools across the nation. As a Georgia Charter School Association Incubator Fellow and a RedefinED Atlanta grant recipient, Alaina launched Atlanta Unbound Academy in August of 2020, in the midst of the global pandemic. AUA is an innovative K-8 school community mirroring the HBCU experience that provides culturally relevant, rigorous, and empowering education to children in Atlanta
Alaina is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She was honored by the Brooklyn Nets as an Amtrak Pioneer Award recipient for her work in education and was featured as a promising Bahamian under 40 in her home country, The Bahamas. Alaina is a graduate of Spelman College, earned her Master’s Degree 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