[1][2][3][4] She served as executive director for Teach for America in St. Louis, Missouri,[5] then as a member of President Barack Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

[8] In 2014, while Packnett was the executive director of Teach for America in St. Louis, she became involved in the protests that erupted after a police officer shot and killed an 18-year-old black man, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri.

"[12] Ebony's 2015 Power 100 included Packnett, Johnetta Elzie, Deray Mckesson, and Samuel Sinyangwe for their work on Campaign Zero.

[13] In 2016, she was promoted to Vice President of National Community Alliances at Teach for America and began the organization's first civil rights and equality campaign.

[15] During a May 2020 interview on MSNBC about the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Packnett Cunningham said, "America needs to ask itself why only a viral consumption of black suffering can actually bring action.