Chief Operating Officer · Washington, DC
I have held the chief operating officer seat three times, most recently as the first national chief operating officer of the National Council of Jewish Women.
Organizations bring me in when growth, complexity, or a change in mission has outrun the way the work actually gets done. Plans exist. Talent exists. The daily practice that would carry either one has not kept pace. My work makes the two match again.
Across these seats I have led teams reaching 120 people, with as many as seven department heads reporting to me directly. I have held People and Culture, Finance, Operations, Contracts, Data, and Technology in a single portfolio, and I have run distributed teams across Chicago, Miami, New York, India, and Israel.
First national Chief Operating Officer
I held the first national chief operating officer seat in the organization's history, with talent, finance, operations, technology, and culture reporting into one chair. I led adoption of a five-year strategic plan approved by the national board, then built the working systems that carried the plan into ordinary weeks.
Operations leadership across 168 schools
I governed a system-wide capital needs assessment covering 168 schools, and the findings informed a public bond referendum. I also authored a nine-competency leadership framework that the district adopted, written as my capstone at the Broad Center.
President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer
I led operations across multiple campuses, including a building renovation and a transportation redesign that lowered cost while widening student access. Two regions, two states, and one operating standard.
Senior Vice President
I carried decision authority over portfolios reaching $300 million, managing high-risk commercial accounts through the 2008 financial crisis and holding loss exposure within target while restructuring the relationships underneath it. Crisis operations taught me what a plan is worth when the numbers move faster than the meeting calendar.
I start by watching. Before I change a process, I want to know what the current one protects, who depends on it, and what it costs the people running it. Most struggling operations began as a reasonable answer to a problem nobody recorded.
I build for the organization in front of me. A system that needs heroic effort to survive will fail the week the hero takes vacation, so I design for the staff who will run the work on an ordinary Tuesday.
I move decisions toward the people closest to the work, and I make the boundaries explicit. Clear authority does more for morale than any statement of values, because people feel the difference between being trusted and being managed.
I earned an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a BBA at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and an M.Ed. through the Broad Center at Yale University. I completed the Wharton Executive Education program on leading and scaling human-centered AI adoption through Chief.
I grew up in Detroit and I live in Washington, DC. I hold Diamond Life Membership in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and I serve on the board of the JWOC Resilience Circle.
JJ Phoenix is my fractional and interim operations practice, built for organizations that need an operating leader for a defined season rather than a permanent seat. I take interim coverage during a transition, fractional leadership at a set weekly commitment, and defined-scope engagements.
I speak with executive audiences about operating practice, decision rights, and leading through structural change. In February 2026 I joined a Chief panel in Washington, DC on Black women leading the new world of work.
I write about the conditions that let people do good work. The published field guide sampler lives on Power in Practice, which holds the method side of my work.