Auyana S. Orr serves as the Director of Community Affairs at Ariel Investments. Her primary responsibilities include liaising between Ariel Investments and Ariel Community Academy, leading the firm’s corporate sponsorships and charitable giving, and representing the firm in various social advocacy partnerships. Before joining Ariel, Auyana worked at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for eleven years. Her positions at CPS included School Improvement Coordinator, Data Strategist, and Manager of Data Analytics in the Chief Education Office, where her responsibilities included managing project plans related to calculating the School Quality Rating Policy (SQRP) for all schools and specific measures used in teacher evaluation. Beyond her role at Ariel, Auyana serves on the board of the Sue Duncan Children’s Center, as a steering committee member of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank’s Financial Services Pipeline Initiative, and as an advisory council member for Urban Alliance in Chicago.
Auyana received her B.A. in Political Science from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and her M.P.P. with a concentration in Education Policy from the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.