Renata Sylvia Pienkawa was one of the first ELL teachers hired by the Amherst Public Schools, and taught there, at both the elementary and secondary levels, for 25 years. During her tenure, she mentored many students and novice teachers and provided numerous workshops and trainings for staff. For several years, Renata coordinated the ELL Program and served as the ELL teacher trainer for the Amherst Public Schools.

Through the WMWP (Western Massachusetts Writing Project), Pienkawa co-led one of the first all-year trainings for teachers focused on ELL and Writing in 1997–98. Since then, she has worked with CES (Collaborative for Educational Services) and other organizations, delivering hundreds of seminars, workshops, trainings and college courses to diverse audiences around the state. These trainings and workshops have focused on preparing Massachusetts teachers to work with English language learners, supporting them across all grade levels and content areas.

Pienkawa has been a consultant for school districts around the state since the 1990s. She has been a consultant and instructor for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for both RETELL (Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners) and WIDA (World Class Instructional Design and Assessment).

Pienkawa has worked in the Department of Education and Child Study since 2013, teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses. After a short pandemic break to take care of her elderly mother, she is back to teaching.

As an immigrant, published poet, and the mother of a profoundly deaf son, she invites her students to enter into a deep dialogue of human sharing, intentionality in teaching and scientific inquiry. In her teaching, Pienkawa is interested in finding the right balance between the science and art of teaching, using varied modalities of communication and self-expression to reach each and every student.