“How you tell your story is everything.”

Azani David Pinkney graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in 2014 with a B.A. in Africana Studies, with a concentration in Music. However, his undergraduate experience began in the Engineering School, exploring both mechanical and systems engineering, until switching his minor in Africana Studies to a major at the end of his sophomore year. While these subject matter, at the time, seemed disconnected, the results of those studies set a foundation for the cross-disciplinary thinking that Pinkney actively uses in his various occupations today. Currently, Pinkney is based in Los Angeles, dividing the majority of his time between three roles. First, as Chief Diversity Officer at Us in Technology, a Black-owned human resource agency and consulting firm on a mission to diversify the tech C-suite. Second, as Project Manager for an elementary-level Texas-wide social studies product at an education publishing agency called Amplify. Third, as a Product Design Consultant for a Black-owned, tech-based consultancy, called Framewrk. This is quite the workload to manage, but Pinkney maintains that one thing has remained the same throughout his career: he dedicates himself to more than one thing.

“The work you do for extracurricular activities is real work, and you take those skills and experiences with you post-graduation.”

Although he majored in Africana Studies, Pinkney found a passion for graphic design in his senior year at Penn, discovered as a product of his membership in Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.’s Delta Eta Chapter, where he created promotional designs for social events and programs on behalf of the chapter. Within 6 months of completing his first design, Pinkney’s work gained popularity, and he soon began designing logos and flyers for independent clientele, both on campus and beyond. Using this same creative spirit, Pinkney also co-founded a student club in the spring of his senior year, with the guidance of Dr. Brian Peterson at Makuu, called Fundamentals of Collective Undergraduate Success (“FOCUS”), chartered to support undergraduate students on their journey. In just a few months since founding FOCUS, Pinkney and the FOCUS team were able to secure funding from Penn’s Office of Equity & Access Programs to create paid positions for FOCUS team members, one of which Pinkney took on until the full completion of his degree program in August of 2014. Despite his success with these various endeavors, Pinkney nonetheless found himself “unemployed” and without immediate direction after receiving his degree. With everything he could fit into his car, Pinkney chose to make the courageous transition to Los Angeles, where his creative and entrepreneurial spirit, alongside support from fraternity, friends, and family, buoyed him through the humbling and unpredictable beginning of his career.

After arriving in Los Angeles, Pinkney soon realized the many ways that his own educational experience had not thoroughly prepared him for the real world. It overlooked topics like non-traditional career options, personal development, certain histories and cultural narratives, mental health, and the all-around embrace of creativity as a foundation for career development. Growing up, he attended an African-centered middle school called Roots Activity Learning Center, before transitioning to Gonzaga College High School, a top school in his hometown, Washington, D.C. but, looking back, his first opportunity to deeply explore an interest of 100% of his own creation did not arrive until he began his honors thesis with Dr. Herman Beavers, a long-time Penn English and Africana Studies Professor, as his adviser. This opportunity led Pinkney down a rabbit hole towards discovering his passion: transforming the world of American education, making it more creative, globalized, and responsive to both students and the realities of the world today. For those figuring out what their passion or purpose is, Pinkney suggests starting with considering the intersection of a problem you want to solve and your vision of who you want to be.

“Self-employed is always the baseline. You are never unemployed if you have a skill or something of value that you are offering to the world.”

Pinkney did not find steady employment until October 2015, when he started part-time as a Success Coach at College Track Watts, an education non-profit and after-school program supporting students in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. With this as his foundation, he would go on to work in student-facing academic and administrative roles at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, California Institute of Technology, and as an independent leader and Program Director of his very own Flower Research Institute. Overall, it took almost 2 years post-graduation for Pinkney to get his “career feet” under him. By 2017, his mindset towards his freelance and part-time work led him to an opportunity as Chief of Staff at Scholly, a Shark Tank-backed ed-tech company known for connecting students to college scholarships, where he worked directly alongside the company’s CEO at the age of 24.

More recently, Pinkney found himself, as many did, “unemployed” in 2020, as a result of the pandemic. However, Pinkney explains that he persevered because he had more than one skill set to rely on to secure employment. The year of 2020 particularly tested his patience and perseverance the most, as he began the year having just relocated from Los Angeles to Brooklyn to study fashion design, a long-time interest, at Parsons School of Design. When classes went remote and summer employment opportunities in the fashion industry were cancelled, he employed himself by creating a brand called Zan, where he served as a Teacher & Instructional Designer for an English high-school prep course that he independently developed for his nephew. He knew how to curate curriculum and had design experience, so he fully invested his time into this program and made sure to leverage that very experience on his resume. After a tumultuous summer of both job-searching and executing his course, Pinkney secured an opportunity in September of 2020 as a Project Manager for Education Partnerships at Amplify Education, where he works today, having leveraged much of his recently accrued experience at Zan to do so. 

“You may be a person that has more than one interest. You may be good at more than one thing, and that is okay. With hard work, perseverance, and a lot of time management, you can maximize every single gift you have.”

With all of these experiences under his belt, only recently has Pinkney started to feel security in his success, without needing to urgently think about the next career opportunity. Today, Pinkney looks back on his 8 years of deeply-focused career experience with gratitude, thankful that he stayed true to his passions and maintained sight of his north star: his mission to transform the world of education. In the long term, he aims to continue his three-pronged journey of education, design, and DEI work. In the long term, Pinkney hopes to use the experience he has gained thus far to develop an educational methodology that he hopes will, once and for all, accomplish his mission of bringing creativity, individuality, and transformation to America’s current system of education. Pinkney is supported by his circle of friends, his Kappa brothers, his family, and his colleagues. Outside of work, Pinkney carves out time for activities he does not intend to monetize, like video games on the Switch, recreational basketball, and traveling to Africa and the Caribbean.

You can connect with Azani David Pinkney via LinkedIn, Instagram, Email