Aja Burrell Wood is the managing director for Berklee’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Wood currently implements vision and strategy, oversees institutional initiatives and programming, teaches courses related to gender and justice in jazz and Black music history, and produces events for the Berklee community. She has extensive experience as an ethnomusicologist, educator, and curator, with a background in development and violin performance. Prior to Berklee, Wood taught courses on music, history, and culture at the City College of New York and Brooklyn College's Conservatory of Music. Her work includes research on musical community among Black classical musicians, women in jazz, jazz in the digital era, music and civic engagement in Harlem, and other related genres of the African Diaspora, such as blues, hip-hop, soul, and West African traditions. She has been a visiting fellow at the New School, in addition to her role as guest lecturer at New York University and various institutions throughout New York City.