Biography

A native New Orleanian and proud New Orleans Public Schools graduate, Adrinda “Drin” Kelly credits her incredible Black teachers for her resilience, drive, and unrelenting belief in the assets of Black education. Drin is passionate about building the capacity of exceptional Black educators to provide a high-quality education to our children while challenging structural relationships of inequity through narrative and systems-change strategies.

Prior to her nonprofit work, Adrinda worked as an education editor in New York where she was focused on developing college preparatory resources for underrepresented students. Immediately prior to BE NOLA, Adrinda was the national managing director of staff diversity, equity, and inclusiveness strategy at Teach For America and led several initiatives focused on strengthening staff and alumni communities of color. Adrinda has written on the intersection between race, history, and education for Teachers and Writers Magazine, Students at the Center, and the Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies.

Adrinda graduated with a B.A. in English from Harvard University and holds an M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought (Global History) from New York University. In 2008 she was a Diversity Studies Fellow at the University of Cape Town. She is an active member of the McDonogh #35 Alumni Association and is a Fall 2018 Pahara NextGen Fellow.