Arlena Dongilli

Arlena joined the Golden LEAF Foundation as Scholarship Program Manager in August 2021. In this role, she leads the implementation of the Golden LEAF Scholarship Program. This includes leading outreach and engagement efforts for the program and managing awards to administering entities of the scholarship and additional scholarship enhancement opportunities. Before joining Golden LEAF, Arlena taught for six years in Halifax and Northampton counties as a Teach For America corps member. She then served as Director, Incoming Corps Member Pipeline for Teach For America – Eastern North Carolina where she led the region’s efforts to onboard and hire its corps members.

Arlena was born and raised in Rockingham, North Carolina and lives in Rocky Mount with her husband, Shane. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Strategic Communication in 2013 from UNC-Chapel Hill and received a Master of Science in Elementary Education from Johns Hopkins University in 2018.