Ahava Silkey-Jones

Ahava Silkey-Jones

Executive Director, DaVinci Academy of Arts and Science
Ahava Silkey-Jones is an accomplished non-profit and education leader. She has a passion for building community through education and the arts locally and globally. She has worked to develop and implement high-quality programming, global education initiatives, and innovative models for arts education in Chicago, Boston, Newark, and Minneapolis.
 
Ahava is the Executive Director of the DaVinci Academy of Arts and Science, a k-8, Blue-Ribbon award-winning charter school, serving 865+ students and 140+ faculty and staff. Prior to DaVinci Ahava served as the Principal of Minnesota’s statewide residential arts high school serving students throughout the state with a passion for music, dance, theater, literary, media or visual arts. Ahava has also worked as a school administrator in the Newark Public Schools and as the Director of Fine Arts for the University of Chicago Charter School.  She earned her M.A. in Educational Leadership from Roosevelt University, her Ed.M. in Arts in Education from Harvard University, and her superintendent license from the University of Minnesota. 
 
Ahava was a 2019 fellow with the New Leaders Council Twin Cities Chapter and a 2013 recipient of the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute’s Employee of the Year recognition for her extraordinary service, exemplary practice, and stellar results. Ahava currently serves as a Commissioner with the Minneapolis Arts Commission; as board chair for the Professional Theatre and Dance Youth Academy (PTDYA), 501.c.3.; and is serving her second term as an elected member of the National Arts in Education Advisory Council with Americans for the Arts. Ahava is fiercely committed to working on system-level equity and policy initiatives, building school and community partnerships, and improving access to quality arts education for all students.