UNIONDALE, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 2, 2025 / Marquis Who's Who honors Laura Cunningham for her contributions to technology. Ms. Cunningham is the chief executive officer and co-founder of the Ava app. With 18 years of experience spanning public education, data infrastructure, edtech and blockchain, her current venture addresses the mental load of parenthood.

Early Work in Higher Education

Ms. Cunningham's career began in management and technology consulting, where she worked with various higher education institutions. In 2009, she joined the New York City Department of Education during the Bloomberg administration. While there, she built tools to help teachers track student performance and translated policy into practice for the city's schools.

Over the next decade, Ms. Cunningham took on roles of increasing responsibility at the KIPP Foundation, a national charter school network. In this capacity, she led data and product teams across both nonprofit and startup settings. In 2020, she served as vice president of product at Noodle, a tech startup launched by Princeton Review founder John Katzman.

Later, Ms. Cunningham joined the blockchain project NEAR, where she led ecosystem development and was the head of product. She managed AI strategy at the company and gained experience with emerging technologies. This work gave her the confidence to launch Ava.

Inspiration Sparked by Motherhood Challenges

Ava was born from a moment of clarity. "It came from a very personal place," Ms. Cunningham says. While managing international responsibilities in a male-dominated industry, she realized she was missing key moments in her daughters' lives. As she describes, the "crisis of motherhood" motivated her to build something practical for families.

Ava uses agentic AI. This class of tools performs real-world tasks like booking appointments or filling out forms. The platform aims to help parents reduce the administrative and emotional burden of managing household logistics. It's a productivity tool that can restore time and attention to the parts of parenting that matter most.

The company is in the alpha and beta stages. Ms. Cunningham has plans for a public general availability release in 2026. A waitlist is available at Ava's website. "We're going to keep it as signing up for the inner circle because it's also been about community building," she says. Early users can also gain access to parenting experts and coaching sessions.

Authenticity as a Core Value

Ms. Cunningham credits much of Ava's momentum to authenticity. As users grow more skeptical of algorithm-driven content and marketing, she believes people seek communities they can trust. "What I'm seeing is people are starting to gravitate toward smaller, less-anonymous communities," she says. "Being authentic is something that I think is critical in all aspects of your life."

This belief also extends to Ms. Cunningham's leadership style. At Ava, she works closely with co-founder and CTO Joe Alicata, whose background at Google and ESPN informs the company's product road map. Ms. Cunningham is responsible for distribution strategy, user growth, storytelling and fundraising.

Valued-Added Access for More Families

The next phase for Ava will involve scaling access, securing additional funding and continuing to grow a loyal user base. Community-led growth remains a priority, as does expanding value-added services to families.

The startup world often emphasizes disruption. However, Ms. Cunningham is focused on building something that lasts. As a result, she has garnered recognition for decades of experience, personal drive and ongoing contributions to technology.

About Marquis Who's Who^®:
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America^®, Marquis Who's Who^® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Who's Who in America^® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms worldwide. The suite of Marquis^® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who's Who^® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.

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SOURCE: Marquis Who's Who