Angie Adams

Biography

Angie Underhill Adams currently serves as the President & CEO of PENCIL, a nonprofit organization with the mission of supporting public education.  She has been in this role for two years and has recruited pro-bono PR services from a top Nashville firm, increased board engagement and giving, and begun the process to increase Partnership engagement exponentially. She aided the PENCIL board and staff in creating a new strategic plan, which is focused on supporting Metro Nashville Public School’s (MNPS) key Partnership targets – Elementary Literacy, Middle School STEAM, and High School Industry Certification Exams.  Angie’s passion is to change the community narrative about Nashville’s public education system, believing that the more people that are engaged with MNPS, the more positive the impact will be.

Ms. Adams has 25 years of experience providing financial and administrative services to a variety of nonprofit organizations both as a management level staff member and a freelance consultant and trainer. Before joining PENCIL, she served as Executive Director of Nashville Ballet where she led a very significant capital campaign and physical expansion project to allow School of Nashville Ballet to double in size. Under her leadership the Ballet significantly expanded its class offerings, number of professional performances annually and garnered a much higher level of community support and engagement. 

Prior to her work with Nashville Ballet, Ms. Adams was the Director of Finance and Administration for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas and received the honor of being named Nonprofit CFO of the Year for Austin, Texas in the spring of 2010.  Before moving to Texas, Ms. Adams served as CFO/COO for five years at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. She also spent several years as Director of Finance and Administration with the Sexual Assault Center which was awarded the Marvin Runyon Leadership Award for Excellence in Management During a Time of Crisis by the Center for Nonprofit Management.

Her first nonprofit staff position was with Nashville Opera where she managed finances, public relations and group ticket sales. She was an administrative intern with Nashville Ballet during college and spent several years volunteering with the ballet.

Ms. Adams was named a 2017 Women of Influence by the Nashville Business Journal.  She has a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Belmont University’s Honors Program and now serves as an adjust faculty member at Belmont.  She is board president of FALL Aerial Dance Company, a Reading Clinic tutor, an active member of The Rotary Club of Nashville, and regularly volunteers with Nashville Public Radio.  Ms. Adams is now in her 30th year of dance studies and continues to take a variety of dance classes.

Ms. Adams is the mother of an eleven-year-old daughter, Maggie, who recently graduated from Eakin Elementary School and is now attending Meigs Middle Magnet