Meet Tiffany Green-Abdullah

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Green-Abdullah.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Tiffany. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am originally from Chicago and the South Side specifically. I was blessed to have many people in my educational history look out for me and open doors to new opportunities such as the Link Unlimited program in Chicago that helped me attend St. Ignatius College Prep High School. I attended undergrad and grad school in Nashville TN at Vanderbilt University. I am a first-generation college graduate.

I moved to Atlanta in July of 2008 after living in Minneapolis for seven years. In Minneapolis, I was successful working in city government, community organizing and consulting for an educational architecture firm designing innovative schools are over the world. Also during my time in Minneapolis, I co-founded the Minneapolis chapter of the Black Alliance for Educational Options which exposed me to school choice and charter schools at a national level. This would be very important later on after I moved to Atlanta and shortly thereafter met and married my husband, Tariq Abdullah, AIA.

My spiritual life is an essential factor of why and what I decide to put energy into. I converted to Islam in 2009 and have found the lifestyle to be peaceful, progressive and helpful in overcoming many personal challenges over the last ten years in Atlanta.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Life is never as smooth as you want or thought it would be but since my 20s I have tried to live by the motto “the right attitude gives you the fortitude to overcome all obstacles”. Over the last ten years, some of the challenges I have faced include the death of my youngest child in 2014. He was born ten weeks premature and lived to four months. He was my 2nd child to pass away after my oldest son was stillborn in 2004. My 2nd son is a rambunctious eight-year-old now. I also lost my brother/cousin in 2017 after a long bought with kidney failure. I am the oldest of my cousins and Devoy was a year younger than me. He was shot at 17 in Chicago and was a paraplegic turned violence prevention activist. More recently, I lost my Dad in October 2018 to a sudden heart attack.

I teach my children that death is a part of life. We all will face it so how we live is more important than how we die. I get asked often how do I juggle all the projects and businesses we have as a family. My response is a quote I heard from Les Brown sometime in 2014 after my son died. Les says to “live full and die empty” meaning do not leave any dreams undone. There are so many people who put off dreams and believe that those dreams are not possible. I do a lot but I still have even more dreams. If I could forego sleeping, I would, in order to get even more done. It is not easy balancing being a wife, mother, sister, auntie, business women, etc. I try to prioritize each day with God, Family, Work in that order.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Community Academy for Architecture and Design & Georgia State University story. Tell us more about the business.
My husband Tariq is an architect and a visionary developer of youth architectural workshops that we would use as the foundation for a new charter school we co-founded called The Community Academy for Architecture and Design (TCAAD). I began working at Georgia State University in 2011. At the same time, we began developing TCAAD. TCAAD was approved as a State Charter School in July 2018. We will open in Fall 2019 on Memorial Drive in the heart of Stone Mountain with grades kindergarten to third grade. I am so proud of the diligence, tenacity and innovative spirit we have developed to make TCAAD a reality. It has been an extremely difficult process and very taxing on our family yet we all agreed to keep going because we believe in developing a legacy that lives beyond us.

My career at Georgia State University began as a Project Manager in the IT Department in 2011. Now at the top of 2019, seven years later, I am the Assistant Director for Learning Community Development (LCD) in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning as well as the Director of Digital Learners to Leaders (DLL). My team LCD develops innovative programs for staff and students. DLL is a co-curricular interdisciplinary program that focuses on developing digital literacy for our female and diverse student populations. I also advise a student organization called PantherHackers which has 1100 members. I am in my 5th position in 7 years at Georgia State. I love developing programs focused on technology, social justice and developing partnerships with Atlanta organizations and corporations to benefit Georgia State. I also completed my Ph.D. application a few weeks ago and plan to begin the Learning Sciences program this fall. My husband Tariq and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary in April so 2019 is an exciting and monumental year on so many levels.

What sets me apart is my ability to see how things, people and organizations can connect to make social change. I attempt to use technology for social good and to ensure that tenant is throughout any program that I am involved in.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I am not a believer in luck, good or bad. I believe what is for you, is for you, whether it is good or bad. I have shared some challenges in my life here. I have experienced enough things to know that everything that may seem bad up close may actually be the initiate of something positive later on. For example, my youngest son had down syndrome. I did not know how we would care for a child with disabilities. I turned to Allah (God) and prayed for ease because Allah does not make mistakes. During the time, I was also very ill and had to be hospitalized at the same time my baby was in the NICU. After his passing, I dedicated my life to making TCAAD come into reality in the name of our son. If he had lived, I do not know if we would have been able to make TCAAD happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: tcaad.org
• Phone: 6785425064
• Email: tiffanylgreen@gmail.com
• Instagram: mactificent
• Twitter: tiffanygreenabd
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanygreen/

Image Credit:
Georgia State University

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