Cornelius is an Associate Director on the Learning Programs Team at Education Pioneers. In his role, he focuses on designing and implementing national systems and structures that will support the integration of people and ideas in the education sector and build leadership capacity within others. He oversees EP Fellowships in the Midwest and East Coast.

Prior to joining EP, Cornelius taught middle school special education and high school English before becoming an administrator in Boston and Chicago Public Schools where he designed and led whole school professional development that focused on adaptive leadership and change management, facilitated a new teacher professional learning community, and led a student mentoring program. He is also an adjunct professor at Dominican University where he instructs new teachers.

Cornelius holds a BA in Broadcast Journalism from Western Kentucky University, an MA in Teaching from Dominican University and an M.Ed in School Leadership from Harvard where he was awarded the Intellectual Contribution Award.