Prior to joining Meridian, Ava Knox was the Corporate and Foundation Partnerships Manager at the International Youth Foundation, a global organization that helps connect young people with opportunities to transform their lives. Before that, Ava was the Deputy Director of Grant Writing at Elevate, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm that partners with hundreds of nonprofits nationally to build and run their grant programs. Ava has worked in development at Blue Star Families and Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, and also as a teaching artist at a variety of nonprofit theatres. Originally from Santa Cruz, CA, Ava lives in College Park, MD with her husband and two young sons. She earned a MA in Nonprofit Arts Administration from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), a BFA in Acting from Brooklyn College, and has studied at Universidad Veritas in Costa Rica and Université de Pau in France