Veena Black

Veena Black

Fellowship Placement: United States House of Representatives
Hometown: Atlanta, GA

Mrs. Veena Black has been an educator for over 23 years. For the last six years, Mrs. Black has been the STEM Lead at Briarlake Elementary School. She led her school to become Cognia STEM recertified in March 2022. She teaches STEM specials to students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Mrs. Black also runs multiple after school clubs such as First Lego League Robotics, Girls Who Game, STEM Gems, Aquaponics, and Bags to Beds Crocheting clubs.

Before becoming a STEM teacher at Briarlake, Mrs. Black was a homeroom teacher to elementary students from kindergarten through third grade. She also was a self-contained special education teacher to students with severe and profound disabilities and behavioral disorders. To be able to meet the needs of all her students, Mrs. Black also obtained endorsements in math, gifted, and English as a second language.

Mrs. Black earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and education from Rutgers University, NJ in 1991. She originally was an engineering major hoping to pursue ceramics engineering and eventually work for NASA. She decided to pursue teaching when she worked part-time at the college day care center and students with autism. Mrs. Black attended Emory University and received her Master of Divinity in 2004. In her last year of seminary, she took child advocacy classes and decided she wanted to return to her first love of teaching. Last August, Mrs. Black received Master in Educational Leadership Tier 1 from Mercer University.

Mrs. Veena Black has been recognized with numerous awards. Her biggest honor was becoming the 2024 Georgia Teacher of the Year Finalist. She was also the recipient of the Don Cargill STEM Scholar award. Recently she was recognized as the Elementary Teacher of Excellence at the Georgia Engineering Technology Education Association and at the International Technology Engineering Education Association.

Mrs. Black’s states that being a STEM teacher has been her favorite teaching position because she loves teaching the Engineering Design Process to boost students' self-confidence and motivation. She advocates for equitable STEM resources for all schools, especially funding for schools with low socioeconomic status. She writes grants and collaborates with community partners to acquire free resources for her school. She is currently on the Georgia Department of Education Teacher Policy Fellowship working on legislation for her deaf and hard of hearing students. She is also the Georgia Teacher Activator for Voices for Honest Education working to improve legislation for public schools.