Operating record
Four seats, four different problems
Every organization I have joined was competent and stretched at the same time. The people knew what mattered. The daily practice had fallen behind what the mission had become.
What follows describes each seat, the condition I found, and what changed while I held it.
National Council of Jewish Women
First national Chief Operating Officer
The National Council of Jewish Women has advocated for women, children, and families since 1893. The organization had never held a national chief operating officer seat before mine. Talent, finance, operations, technology, and culture reported into one chair for the first time, which meant the tradeoffs among them became visible to a single person who could act on them.
I led adoption of a five-year strategic plan approved by the national board. A plan alone changes nothing, so the larger work followed: building the cross-functional practice that turned board direction into weekly decisions, and giving staff a clear read on who decides what. An organization with a long history carries a great deal of accumulated practice, and my task was to keep what still served the mission while retiring what no longer did.
KIPP Public Schools, Missouri and Arkansas
President of Operations, KIPP St. Louis, and Chief Operating Officer, KIPP Delta
School operations reach students before instruction does. A child who arrives late because a bus route makes no sense has already lost the morning. I led operations across multiple campuses in two states, holding facilities, transportation, food service, technology, and the business functions that keep a school network running.
At KIPP Delta I led a building renovation and a transportation redesign. Both lowered cost, and both widened student access, which is the pairing worth pursuing. Operations work in schools earns its keep in minutes of instructional time protected and in families who can rely on the schedule.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Operations leadership across 168 schools
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools serves one of the larger public school systems in the United States. I governed a system-wide capital needs assessment covering 168 schools, and the findings informed a public bond referendum. Capital work in a public district is a governance exercise as much as a facilities exercise, because the numbers have to survive public scrutiny and hold up under a vote.
I also authored a nine-competency leadership framework that the district adopted, written as my capstone at the Broad Center. Districts often buy leadership development. Fewer of them define what leadership means in their own setting first, and definition is the step that makes the development worth funding.
Citi
Senior Vice President
I managed high-risk commercial portfolios through the 2008 financial crisis, holding loss exposure within target while restructuring the relationships underneath it. Every week brought a decision that could not wait for a complete picture, and the discipline I learned there has stayed with me: name what you know, name what you do not, decide anyway, and revisit on a schedule you set in advance.
My career began in consumer banking at Citi. Earlier roles at Allstate Financial and DaimlerChrysler gave me manufacturing and insurance operations before I moved into education and the nonprofit sector.
Education
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.