How We Can Help You

We engage directly with you, and make sure we understand exactly what your specific needs are. Then, we develop targeted, practical solutions for you, tapping into our global network of resources and relationships. We have expertise and decades of experience in designing and evaluating strategies and programs, as well as delivering capacity-building support.

What We Offer

Develop your strategy and come up with an action plan

We help funders and mission-driven organizations clarify the strategic choices they have to make, and also get a better lay of the land through landscape scans and due diligence. With a clearer strategy and picture of the space, we can then help you create an action plan to make your strategy real.

Monitor, evaluate, and measure the impact of your program

We create customized, practical tools and systems for nonprofits, schools, and other youth-serving organizations. These tools gather nuanced feedback, measure impact, and translate data into improved services.

Conduct research and policy analysis

We help decision-makers design and implement better policies and programs by providing actionable insights from global trends, international good practices, and cutting-edge research.

Build your capacity and provide technical assistance

We support you to create programs that not only deliver results, but do so sustainably. We can help you train and develop leaders, and create practitioner-learning networks.

Engage with stakeholders and create partnerships

We help foster meaningful collaboration between public and private sector leaders, stakeholders, experts, and like-minded organizations to achieve maximum impact.

View examples of our work by practice area.

  • Strategy and action planning

    • Facilitated strategic planning and development for a Stanford University-based initiative
    • Reviewed potential entry points in the education landscape for two US-based foundations
    • Conducted investor due diligence of promising P-20 education models in South and Southeast Asia
    • Helped Oregon community colleges plan and redesign their developmental education

  • Monitoring and evaluation

    • Conducted an external evaluation of a youth empowerment program across six sites in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe
    • Provided technical guidance for an Indian education provider’s impact assessment
    • Conducted a mid-course review of two US-based foundations’ education grant making and cross-district learning network activities
    • Benchmarked education reform implementation across 15 US states

  • Research and policy analysis

    • Advised the US Secretary of Education on lessons from strong PISA performers
    • Conducted field studies on innovations in Mexico’s vocational education sector
    • Evaluated promising workforce development models in Podlaskie, Poland
    • Reviewed female entrepreneurship in various Romanian regions

  • Technical assistance and capacity-building

    • Designed international workshops and a companion toolkit on teaching for diversity
    • Created monitoring tools and training modules for a network of Indian preschools
    • Developed leadership training modules for aspiring executives in Bangladesh
    • Facilitated global competence training for Hong Kong secondary schools

  • Stakeholder engagement and partnership development

    • Mapped potential partner organizations across the youth employment and training landscape in West African countries
    • Coached Washington and Oregon higher education representatives in the Core to College network
    • Managed a global, multi-stakeholder OECD meeting on building responsive school systems for 21st-century learners (Alberta, Canada)

Testimonials

“Vanessa adds value in myriad ways. Most notable is her ability to cultivate success even in challenging contexts…Organized, strategic, and authentic, Vanessa galvanized our diverse team, which was scattered all over the globe, by creating an environment that fostered creativity. She has extensive international business experience and offered me wonderful guidance on international customs and culture that helped me tremendously during my time in the field.” —Account Executive, global software firm

Vanessa “played a significant role not just in shaping our thinking on the options for improving education, but in turning those ideas into practice. She brought the breadth of her considerable experience to bear across the full range of our work, helping us to make important connections between curriculum issues, measurement and assessment, training of teachers, and much more. Her high level of technical expertise was an asset, of course, but her enthusiasm to work across all boundaries and to drive for results was an even greater one.” —Former Director, World Bank