Aerianna McClanahan is the Program Manager for Community Engaged Learning at West Virginia University, where she supports faculty, staff, and students in cultivating meaningful academic partnerships with community organizations. In this role, she facilitates Academic Community Engagement (ACE) workshops, coordinates the approval process for community-engaged courses, and develops communication strategies, such as newsletters and Impact Reports, to highlight the university’s engagement initiatives.

A proud Mountaineer alumna, Aerianna earned both her Master of Arts in English and her Bachelor of Arts in English and Women’s & Gender Studies from WVU. As a graduate instructor, she crafted lessons that emphasized critical thinking, collaboration, and individualized support. She was also a Community Leadership and Social Action Fellow through the Center for Resilient Communities. In a partnership with Our Future WV, Aerianna co-developed action plans to address inequities in food access, housing, and education across the state, ultimately organizing more than 1,000 survey responses submitted to the Library of Congress.

Beyond higher education, Aerianna has been deeply involved in youth mentorship and grassroots service. As an Energy Express mentor, she supported rural K–6 students in improving literacy skills, wrote successful community service grants, and contributed more than 600 hours of volunteer service, including initiatives to establish a clothing donation program and a community recycling effort. She has also briefly studied abroad in Italy, an experience that shaped her interest in global perspectives alongside Appalachian identity.

Outside of work, she is passionate about Appalachian culture and history, enjoys listening to podcasts and audiobooks, building botanical LEGO sets, looking for local cryptids, and creating charcuterie boards to share with friends and family.