Charita’s career has focused on formal teaching, developing curricula, evaluation, youth development and African-American Studies. Charita has worked as an English and Humanities teacher at Hunter College High School, the Winchendon School in Brooklyn, the Bement School in MA and Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics. Charita has also worked as a guest lecturer for a semester at Smith College and as a teaching fellow at Harvard University where her focus was the Harlem Renaissance. Charita was a NYC teaching fellow for two years and most recently worked as the Program Coordinator for Young New Yorkers where she facilitated an arts-based alternative-to-incarceration program for 16-25-year-olds.

Charita Gainey holds a BA in English from Cornell University; a Master of Science in Secondary English Education from Lehman College, CUNY; and she also holds a Master or Arts in English and a Ph. D. in African and African American Studies from Harvard University.