Richard Awni
Richard is the Chairman and Founder of the Family First Foundation, a 25+ year nonprofit promoting college and higher learning within the AT risk communities in Southern California with a proven track record of creating academic all-stars out of at-risk students. It’s often said they may be one of the most impactful nonprofits you’ve never heard of… until now.
Professionally, Richard brings a strong private-sector backbone, with experience across start-ups, mid-size and Fortune 500 companies including DirecTV and AT&T, others a combination of operational discipline and entrepreneurial instinct that shows up in everything he builds.
That work has since evolved into the founding of the Artificial Intelligence Institute, built by Dr. Richard Knight and their team—focused on teaching elementary students how to correctly use AI at the exact moment they’re already engaging with it. Their work is pioneering what’s known as cognitive offloading—ensuring students use AI responsibly and creatively, without allowing it to replace their own thinking.
And now, bringing that same vision into the next arena, Richard is happy to join the advisory board of ConNEXTions—where there is clear and powerful alignment around building the next generation of opportunity at scale.