Alexandra Wiggins

Alexandra Wiggins (she/her) is Vice President of Network Member Services with Purpose Built Communities – a nonprofit that supports a national network of local leaders seeking to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty through a cross-sectoral holistic neighborhood revitalization model. Alexandra is a lawyer by training and brings her legal acumen to the process of facilitating public-private partnerships and agreements that ensure the neighborhood ecosystems where low income children live and thrive will support their success both within and outside of the classroom. She is a former elementary educator and Teach For America Metro Atlanta alumna who aims to ensure as many doors are open to the children and families who are often afforded the least agency in their futures.

Reflecting on her time as an educator, Alexandra’s desire to ensure high quality education is accessible for all students regardless of socioeconomic status led her to explore the intersection of education law and policy – specifically focusing on the constitutionality of educational gerrymandering and halting additional forms of educational segregation. This passion provided her the opportunity to work with former US Senator Mary Landrieu on drafting the initial DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) legislation in support of undocumented students and children while in law school and eventually returning to Georgia to work on equitable educational initiatives for rural educators and students with the Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement.

Alexandra also serves as a member of the Drew Charter School Board’s Mission Committee in Atlanta’s East Lake neighborhood. Drew Charter School is at the center of the East Lake Atlanta revitalization effort – a project that serves as the impetus for the Purpose Built Communities model. The Mission Committee seeks to ensure equitable enrollment policies are top of mind so that Drew continues to serve a significant number of economically disadvantaged students to help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty by eliminating the achievement gap based on race, economically disadvantaged status, and disability status.