30 years leading teams in education. Now helping mission-driven organizations manage complex projects, develop leaders, and do their highest-stakes work.
I'm a California K-12 educator and consultant based in Berkeley. Over 30 years, I've been a classroom teacher, school leader, and Chief Academic Officer. I spent a decade leading academic strategy across a charter school network: managing teams, driving programs, coaching leaders, and producing the documents and plans that boards, authorizers, and funders demand.
That's not a consulting background. It's an operating background. I know what it feels like to manage a project with imperfect data, limited capacity, public accountability, and a deadline that won't move. That's the perspective I bring to every engagement.
In recent years, I've expanded beyond K-12 to work with national nonprofits, major foundations, specialized service providers, and early childhood programs. The work is different in each context, but the need is always the same: a senior person who can manage the project, coach the leaders, and produce work that holds up.
I stay through execution. I don't hand you a strategy and walk away. I stay with the work: managing timelines, coordinating stakeholders, coaching leaders, and producing the plans and materials that need to get done.
I build strategic clarity into everything. Strategic plans, grant reports, board presentations: most organizations treat these as boxes to check. I treat them as opportunities to build alignment, sharpen the strategy, and turn clarity into materials that drive real impact.
I tell you what I actually think. You're hiring me for judgment, not agreement. If the plan has a gap, I'll say so directly and help you fix it.
Most firms assign a team: a project manager, a junior consultant, maybe a writing contractor. You spend time briefing people who are learning your situation. With me, the person on the strategy call is the same person writing the plan, analyzing the data, prepping you for the board meeting, and coaching your director. Nothing gets lost in translation.
If you're managing a complex project, developing leaders, facing a compliance deadline, or trying to drive a body of work to completion: let's spend 30 minutes on it. No pitch. Just a direct conversation about your situation.
Book a Discovery CallPrefer email? noah@thirdwayconsulting.org
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