executive transitions
Ellen serves as an Interim Executive Director for organizations looking for a transitional leader with insight, experience, and compassion. She does not simply keep the lights on until a permanent ED is hired. Rather, she is a seasoned nonprofit professional ready to work closely with the board and staff to evaluate, if necessary realign, and otherwise prepare the organization for the right permanent Executive Director.
Ellen’s ability to do this is based on her experience with both hands-on management and consulting. She has served as a senior manager in three nonprofits and has worked with over 50 others. This has included reporting to, serving on, and consulting to nonprofit boards. Three areas of expertise are especially important to her Interim work:
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Board Structure and Function
Ellen has worked with and for boards and senior teams to help them engage at the strategic level. She’s helped them clarify their priorities, be clear about what to do and what not do, and develop and manage with clear metrics of success. This has included implementing new approaches such as online documentation, term limits, and annual ED evaluations.
She’s worked with boards across countries to do strategic planning, Executive Director hiring, and financial oversight during the pandemic. And she has run board recruitment, onboarding, reporting, and meetings. Talented people join boards because they care about the mission–the challenge is to tap into and channel their passion and expertise.
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Systems-oriented Management
Ellen is an affirming, direct, and systems-oriented manager. She believes that systems that are simple, clear, and relevant help people take ownership, set priorities, make mid-course corrections, and highlight success.
In one organization, she led a team that streamlined the financial reporting that had grown over the years to include over twenty dashboards that, it turned out, no one read. The resulting report was a more accessible and complete tool for board oversight and decision-making. In another, she managed a diverse internal team of the heads of 10 local offices to successfully apply for and run a $30 million loan and grant program to create safe communities with affordable housing.
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leading through change
At the core of Ellen’s professional career has been helping smart and committed people lead through change, often in the midst of uncertainty. An Interim ED must gain trust quickly, assess with a fresh perspective and good business sense, and work closely and carefully with the board and staff to make changes.
Ellen builds high-functioning teams by modeling and teaching how to come to consensus, have courageous conversations, and create a climate of civility that enhances productivity. Her big-picture sense combined with a practical, tactical ability to get things done, her experience overseeing and fundraising for budgets of up to $40 million, and her active commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, serve her well as an Interim Executive Director.
