Brandi B. Kenner, ph.D.

Dr. Brandi B. Kenner is a cognitive developmental scientist, organizational development guru, and educator who has dedicated her 20+ year professional career to doing her part to ensure Choice-filled Lives are a right for all children and families, while building bridges among research, practice, and innovative technologies. Her dedication to this work was recently recognized by the International Society for Self-Directed Learning, in February 2022, when she was awarded the "Malcolm Knowles Memorial Self-Directed Learning Award: for Significant Lifelong Contributions to the Field of Self-Directed Learning,” as well as her award as a 2024 Camelback Ventures Conscious Tech Fellow, and a 2024 Gates Foundation Promising Entrepreneur of Color ASU+GSV Sponsorship.

Dr. Kenner's primary areas of expertise are: research and evaluation, educational technology and product design, Deep Learning and bias mitigation in AI models, organizational development (including start-up efforts, as well as overall organizational health and sustainability, development, social-emotional development, language and literacy systems transformation, early childhood education, special education, dual-language immersion, and adult learning. 

Dr. Kenner holds a Ph.D. from Emory University‘s Laney Graduate School in Cognitive and Developmental Psychology, an M.Ed. in Behavior and Learning Disabilities from Georgia State University, and a bachelor’s degree with foci in Elementary Education and Sociology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  She also holds a leadership certification in Nonprofit Leadership, Governance and Finance from the Georgia Charter Schools Association, and a Google certification in Large Language Models. Brandi maintains a higher education affiliation as an Affiliated Research Scientist with Yale University's Haskins Laboratories.

Upon graduating from the University of Michigan, Brandi began her career as a classroom teacher in an African-centered charter school in Detroit, Michigan. She then moved to Atlanta, Georgia where she served in a variety of classroom teaching positions in subsequent traditional public and charter schools for 5 years. After leaving the k-12 classroom space, Dr. Kenner broadened her impact and reach through serving in roles in higher education teacher preparation, preschool and k-8 charter school development, consulting, independent school executive leadership, and nonprofit and philanthropic executive leadership with both large organizations such as Teach For America and The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and smaller nonprofit organizations with national reach and scale, such as the Atlanta Speech School and its Rollins Center for Language & Literacy, where she led a multidisciplinary team to build out and scale an internationally reaching, open source, professional learning product for educators, families, and public health professionals.

Dr. Kenner founded Choice-filled Lives Network to have broader impact and scale in her work, and to serve as a connector among the many educational and social-change organizations in The U.S. and beyond, that are doing their part to eliminate inequities and opportunity gaps, ensuring Choice-filled Lives are a reality for children and communities each day.  She resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her large blended "Brady Bunch" family. In her free time, Dr. Kenner enjoys spending time with her family and friends, gardening, cooking, and traveling anywhere that has sunny skies, a white or black sand beach, and clear water.