About Alana Lerner

I’m a third-generation educator with more than 15 years of experience across K-12 classrooms, national education nonprofits, and workforce development organizations. My work bridges teaching and learning, career readiness, and technology education, and is grounded in care, intention, and practical implementation.

I began as a Teach For America corps member teaching high school biology in a Title I school in Phoenix, Arizona. I taught all day and earned my Master’s Degree in Education at night. Those early years deepened my curriculum development foundations and cemented my belief that classrooms should be rooted in strong relationships, clear systems, and high expectations.

I later served as a Director of Academic Programs and Alumni Support for a national after school program organization, where I led academic strategy for a network serving 2,000+ students. I developed training for more than 80 academic and college success staff across 19 sites and I spearheaded peer mentoring, internship placement, and summer school programs. Ultimately, I learned how to build consistency at scale without sacrificing local identity. This is a principle that continues to guide my work.

At Year Up United, a leading national workforce development organization, I held roles in Career Services, Program Leadership, and National Program Facilitation. I designed and led large-scale career readiness workshops reaching thousands of young adults annually and contributed as a subject matter expert to organization-wide LMS implementation and curriculum change management initiatives.

As a parent advocate on the Distraction-Free Schools Maryland leadership team, I am part of a coalition of parents, educators, school administrators and state legislators who are working to address the challenges of smartphones, social media, and an excess of technology in classrooms. I’ve testified twice in front of the Maryland State Senate Committee on Education to discuss the importance of creating phone-free school environments. These collaborative efforts contributed to the passing of the Joanne C. Benson Maryland Phone-Free Act in May of 2026.

I hold a B.A. in Neuroscience from Columbia University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Arizona State University. I am certified by Vanderbilt University and IBM in AI for Educators Specializations. 

I am married to a fellow TFA-er and I’m a proud mom of three wonderful children who motivate me to work hard for their future.