Supporting public sector and nonprofit clients with public affairs, community and stakeholder engagement, and management consulting services. Current fields include transportation, education, environment (water, climate, energy, sustainability), and health.

In my director role, I facilitated strategic planning processes and oversaw the cross-functional design, alignment, and implementation of programming to build equitable systems and structures that achieve better, more equitable educational outcomes for youth in 70 communities across the U.S. I built and led the convene function, centralizing StriveTogether's events, trainings, and leadership programs. I worked to create and change the culture through network communications to our 70 sites, including speech writing and targeted communications, as well as how we operationalized our values and the way we implemented programs and grants. I was a champion for innovation and improvement as well as designing and facilitating solutions alongside community members. I created the co-development of solutions fellowship to support local and national efforts to shift power to youth, families and community members.

In my continuous improvement role, I used adult learning theory to build the capabilities of cross-sector leaders and practitioners to use data to improve cradle-to-career outcomes, developing and teaching a methodology that builds capabilities and competencies in continuous improvement, design thinking, equity and adaptive leadership. I facilitated strategic planning and coached community teams to take action on setting collaborative goals, creating structures and strategies to achieve them, and ultimately achieving measurable short- and long-term impact and results for students. I also led the implementation of multiple multi-million dollar grants to our local sites, developing a new funding strategy that aligned to organizational goals and mission, disrupted traditional grantmaking practices to better met grantee and community needs, spurred innovation, and resulted in tangible changes to systems and improved academic outcomes across the cradle to career spectrum.

A former Urban Leaders Fellow (Denver '14), I led the expansion of the fellowship to a Nashville in 2015 and built the program from the ground up. This required relationship building with local nonprofits, government agencies, school districts, political leaders, and other local and state organizations to secure partners who would ultimately hire the fellows or support programming (site visits, speaking engagements, etc.) for the fellows' professional and personal development. I recruited and interviewed applicants and managed 12 fellows, including their placement in 11 community organizations and oversight of four policy teams supporting Metro Nashville Public Schools board member Elissa Kim and MNPS's Office of Innovation. Policy topics included human capital, portfolio management, academic performance, and budget analysis. I also managed day-to-day operations and logistics, professional development, and programming, and I launched the first annual Urban Leaders Fellowship Summit to build connections and bridge ideas between multiple ULF cities.

I supported State Senator Mike Johnston with the implementation of the 2014 Student Success Act's school finance transparency requirements and provided recommendations of key academic performance indicators and school-level expenditures that should be published and included in return-on-investment analyses.I also supported strategic planning for Rocky Mountain Prep charter school, conducting neighborhood analyses, including GIS mapping of current underperforming schools, in Denver and surrounding counties to support the selection of future charter school sites. I also developed a recruitment and communications strategy for the Rocky Mountain Prep Teaching Fellows program.

The Tennessee Consortium on Research, Evaluation, and Development was responsible for the evaluation of Tennessee's Race to the Top initiatives. I supported the creation and distribution of survey instruments to collect data from teachers, school administrators, and other certified staff in 14 districts across the state that are participating in Tennessee's strategic compensation programs. I organized, edited, cleaned, coded, and analyzed data and interviews, and I composed and edited research and reports.

I was a research assistant for a longitudinal literacy research study with the Accelerated Academic Achievement Research Center at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, which is sponsored by the National Center for Special Education Research (part of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences). I administered nationally-normed tests, such as the TOSREC (Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension) or TOWRE (Test of Word Reading Efficiency), to first through fifth grade students and implemented a reading comprehension intervention/tutoring program for third through fifth grade students. Dr. Doug Fuchs was the principal investigator on this project.

Office of the Commissioner I supported the development of the Tennessee Department of Education's five-year strategic plan through research on the educational environment in Tennessee and state/district best practices across the nation.Division of Curriculum and InstructionI developed, compiled, and edited training materials to prepare school leaders and teachers for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and increase readiness for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam.

Community Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems - Los Angeles, CA I overhauled the business’s approach to corporate social responsibility, developing and implementing new programming to expose more than 4,900 students to engineering careers while partnering with educators to align engagement efforts with educational standards. I bolstered a culture of volunteerism to increase the company’s contribution to the community, increasing the number of volunteer hours logged by 193 percent, and supported the selection and distribution of philanthropic grants to community organizations and scholarships to students interested in pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees. Organizational and Employee Communications Raytheon Network Centric Systems - McKinney, TXI partnered closely with Human Resources, Sustainability, and other departments to tell stories of impact and create connection while contributing as a member of the Culture team to implement improvements based on Employee Opinion Survey data. Public Affairs, Executive Communications, and International Communications Raytheon Corporate Business Development Headquarters - Washington, DC I managed global internal communications for Business Development and Raytheon International executives, including speechwriting, change management, town halls, and leadership forums. I leveraged innovative channels, including the company’s first internal video blog, to support the VP of Government Relations to communicate to employees the impacts of sequestration on organizational priorities. I coordinated briefings, op-eds, employee advocacy, and events on defense and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education issues with think tanks and local community organizations.I was a graduate of the Leadership Development Program and awarded four Global Communications awards for Community Relations and Employee Engagement.