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The
Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group was founded from the simple notion
that every organization, regardless of its budget or geographic footprint
can better fulfill its mission with a highly-tailored, innovative, and
strategic approach to acquiring and retaining its most important resource:
talent.
Designed to
operate with ‘new economy’ savvy, the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group
unbundles traditional executive search and leadership transition packages
and offers sophisticated services tailored to our clients’ various needs.
We are committed to passing along our knowledge throughout our process so
that our clients’ internal capacity and independence is enhanced.
We work
worldwide with mission-driven client organizations in the nonprofit,
academic, and public sectors, as well as with the job seekers who serve
them. For organizations, we offer executive search and leadership
transition services. For candidates, we provide leadership
development, job search strategy creation, and resume/cover letter
assistance. For both organizations and candidates, we supply professional
and organizational development in person through our customized training
programs and online with our groundbreaking, complimentary “NPAG U” webinar
series.
Our team
members are personally dedicated to our clients’ missions and together offer
more than 40 years of executive search experience in addition to the wealth
of perspective, expertise, and networks they offer from previous careers in
the nonprofit, academic, public, political, and private sectors.
Laura Gassner Otting, President
Laura Gassner
Otting founded the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group
in 2002. Prior to forming the group, she served as the senior vice
president of ExecSearches.com, the web's leading site for mid- to
senior-level nonprofit job postings and search services. Laura has
served as vice president at Isaacson, Miller, one of the largest search
firms in New England, and one of the most
highly respected non-profit executive search firms in the country.
Previously, Laura served as a presidential appointee for the White House
Office of National Service, a program officer for the Corporation for
National Service and as a member of the Clinton/Gore Transition Team and
1992 Election Team. She holds a Master of Arts in Political
Management from the George Washington University
and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University
of Texas at Austin. Laura sits on the boards of
Camp Starfish
and Newton Montessori
School, and is the immediate past
chair of Strong Women, Strong Girls; she has served as a member of the
Alumni Board of the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University
and as the founding board chair of the Boston Choral Ensemble. Laura
is the author of Change
Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector.
Katherine E. Jacobs, Ph.D., Vice President and
Chief Operating Officer
Katherine Jacobs leads worldwide efforts to strengthen the capacity of our
nonprofit, higher education, and public sector clients and manages the
strategic development of our firm’s virtual workforce. With deep national
and international experience as a psychologist, teacher, researcher, and
search consultant, Katherine guides organizations through transformational
leadership changes and facilitates professional and craft development among
both our clients’ staff members and our own internal team. Katherine's
executive search experience spans the mission-driven sector from
presidential searches for prominent Ivy League universities and
international advocacy organizations to mid-level and executive positions in
small, grassroots organizations in their start-up phases. Katherine formerly
served as Senior Associate for Isaacson, Miller, one of the nation’s leading
search firms dedicated to mission-driven organizations, where she developed
deep consulting experience in their higher education, advocacy, and
nonprofit search practices. A Fulbright scholar and recipient of the Herbert
L. Zimmer Award for excellence in psychological research, Katherine received
her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Rochester while
training at the Eastman School of Music as a classical cellist. She went on
to receive her Ph.D. in Psychology from Georgetown University. Katherine’s
doctoral research focused on the psychological foundations of policy for
managing cultural diversity and, in her consulting work, Katherine has
brought her research to bear on the challenges of diversifying executive
leadership.
Erin DeCurtis, MBA,
Vice
President of Strategy
As Vice
President for Strategy, Erin leads the firm’s client service development
efforts, along with helping to build the firm’s internal strategic
infrastructure. For our executive search projects, she works closely with
clients to develop their recruitment and organizational development
strategy. Along side of this work, Erin is leading efforts to develop the
firm’s Training Services offerings, including in-person courses and webinars
focused on executive search, virtual organization management and strategic
organizational development. Erin joined Nonprofit Professionals Advisory
Group in the fall of 2008 after completing her Masters of Business
Administration at Simmons School of Management, the first business school
designed to educate women for principled leadership. There she created the
school’s first Nonprofit Management Club and served as a research assistant
focused on the growth of social ventures. Prior to earning her MBA, Erin
served as a Senior Associate for Isaacson, Miller, one of the nation’s
leading search firms dedicated to mission-driven organizations. In this
position, she played a critical role in growing the firm’s national K-12
education search practice, in addition to serving as a lead search
consultant to a wide range of higher education, advocacy and economic
development organizations. Erin earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political
Science and Spanish from the University of New Hampshire.
Alison
Falk, Vice President
Alison
Falk oversees a portfolio of diverse executive searches, working closely
with clients to define their leadership needs and utilizing her tailored
but disciplined approach to deliver a steady track record of long-term
executive placements, consistently adding value to some of our nation’s
most important mission-driven organizations. Previously,
Alison served as a Senior Associate for Isaacson, Miller, where she
conducted executive searches for prestigious higher education, advocacy,
and arts and cultural organizations, and as an Associate at the firms of Heidrick & Struggles and Christian & Timbers in
their well-regarded asset management, health care, and technology practice
areas. Prior to launching her second career in
executive search, Alison enjoyed a successful first career in media. She developed progressive multimedia communication
programs utilized by Fortune 500 companies including Charles Schwab,
Oracle, and Sun Microsystems; produced Family Talk, a public radio
program on KQED in San Francisco; and helped to establish a
children’s video production company which produced the You Can video series
aimed at empowering young girls. Alison earned her
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Ohio Wesleyan
University. An avid traveler, Alison has traveled extensively
throughout Africa and Argentina. Alison currently sits on the boards of two non-profit
organizations, raising money for regional community-oriented and
horticultural programs.
Tracy D. Welsh, Vice President
An executive search consultant working in partnership
with both mission- and market-driven organizations for more than a decade,
Tracy’s career affords her unique insight into the interrelationship of
corporate, academic, and non-profit sectors; knowledge of diverse funding
sources (private, venture, government) and their impact on economic, social,
and cultural vitality.
Before joining the Nonprofit Professionals
Advisory Group, Tracy served as a Managing Associate at Isaacson, Miller one
of the non-profit sector’s preeminent executive search firms where she
focused on cabinet and director level positions in private philanthropy and
external relations across higher education, healthcare, human services, and
advocacy organizations. Prior to serving the non-profit community, Tracy
managed C-level and vice presidential-level
searches for one of the nation’s fastest growing executive search firms
serving the high-technology and professional services sectors.
Tracy’s client-centric approach was cultivated early in her career through
public relations and marketing communications roles in the technology arena
where she led marketing communications and helped to commercialize the
assets of AER, an environmental consulting firm providing cutting edge
environmental research, development, software and analysis in climate and
weather prediction, air quality, and satellite sensors.
Tracy holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from
Boston College.
She serves as a volunteer on the parent group
foundation for The Wonder Years Learning Center in Wilmington, MA.
Lisa
Catapano, JD, Managing Associate
Lisa Catapano assists clients
in understanding their organizational leadership needs and in making
strategic hiring decisions. Prior to joining
Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, Lisa served as Vice President of
Operations at Vitale, Caturano & Company,
Ltd., New England’s largest full service CPA, business advisory and
consulting firm, where her experience in corporate infrastructure and
business operations included business culture development and
transformation, internal business planning, internal risk management, real
estate strategy, and business architecture particularly in the development
and implementation of policy, process, systems, and controls that drove
operational efficiency. Previously, Lisa practiced law specializing in the
representation of professional athletes, served as a judicial clerk in the
Massachusetts Probate & Family Court, and worked in the commercial real
estate industry as Director of Marketing & Communications at Whittier
Partners. In addition, Lisa has co-founded two
non-profit organizations: the Newton
Montessori School
in 2006, where she currently sits as chair of its Board of Directors; and
the Vitale, Caturano & Company Foundation in
2000, a philanthropic, grant-making organization where for six years she
served as its Managing Chair overseeing strategic planning and
implementation, grant making, development, administration and volunteerism. Lisa obtained her JD from Suffolk
University and holds a Bachelor of
Arts in English from Boston
College.
Carolyn
Ho, Managing Associate
Carolyn Ho facilitates
executive search processes in partnership with Nonprofit Professionals
Advisory Group’s team of Vice Presidents. Previously,
she served as Interim Executive Director of the Foundation for
International Understanding Through Students in Seattle,
an historic community based nonprofit organization that fosters
international friendship and global understanding located at the University of Washington. Carolyn
brings 10 years experience in higher education administration and
international education in a multitude of academic settings. The first young adult and only the second Asian
American elected as Vice Moderator of the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) in the United States and Canada, a mainline Protestant denomination
with over 750,000 members, she continues to serve in an advisory capacity
to the General Minister and President during organizational restructure. A passionate advocate for diversity, life-long
learning and cross-cultural experiences, she has led trainings for
organizations seeking to eradicate systemic racism, as well as regularly
lecturing on application strategies for university admittance. Carolyn holds a bachelor's degree in flute performance
from the University of Illinois and a master's degree in student
development administration from Seattle
University.
Allison Kupfer, Managing Associate
Allison
Kupfer conducts senior-level executive searches nationwide across the higher
education, philanthropic, advocacy, health care, and human services sectors.
She was previously a Senior Associate with Isaacson, Miller, where she
demonstrated expertise in capturing oral and written organizational
narratives and building deep and diverse candidate pools. Her higher
education practice has included public and private research universities and
liberal arts colleges at the dean, provost, vice president, and presidential
levels, as well as both national and regional philanthropies and a diverse
set of other nonprofits. Prior to that, Allison was a consultant in the
education practice at Abt Associates, an global research and evaluation
firm, where she did extensive training, data collection and analysis. She
served as Deputy Project Director for the first large-scale evaluation of an
early childhood curriculum in a high-poverty urban setting, managing a
150-site study in the Chicago Public Schools, and managed a groundbreaking
study of the effects of self-regulation on literacy outcomes among at-risk
preschoolers in Miami-Dade County. Allison received a Ed.M. in education
policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a B.A. in American
Studies summa cum laude from Skidmore College. She has been active in
statewide and national political campaigns, with a special interest in
children's and employment issues.
Erin
O’Connor Jones, MPA, Managing Associate and Director of Candidate
Services
Erin O’Connor Jones manages a portfolio of nonprofit searches and oversees
candidate consulting services on behalf of nonprofit job seekers currently
in or new to the sector. Throughout her nearly 20
years career leading and managing large and small entrepreneurial
nonprofits, Erin has been committed to
mentoring candidates from resume writing to final negotiations in their
nonprofit job search. She works directly with job
seekers, including those transitioning from the private sector, to
understand the distinct language and complexity of the nonprofit world.
In addition, Erin is featured as one of five career advisors
at
www.change.org, a newly launched site,
where she leads their
Jobs for
Change.org sector switcher blog.
Prior to joining NPAG, Erin served as the Executive Director of the
Family-to-Family Project, a Boston-based agency committed to ending family
homelessness. She was formerly the Vice President
of Communications and Business Development at Youth Alternatives, a
statewide child welfare and mental health agency based in Portland, Maine,
and was the Director of Program Development and Evaluation at the Home for
Little Wanderers in Boston. Her diverse background
includes management, mentoring, program development, communications and
fundraising in the areas of child welfare, mental health, homelessness and
housing. Erin earned her Master's of Public
Administration from Suffolk
University and her
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Keene State College. She also holds a Graduate Certificate in Public Policy
from Boston College's
Program for Women in Politics and Government, now a program of the
McCormack Institute, University
of Massachusetts Boston.
Sarah Conduragis, Associate
Sarah Conduragis
specializes in candidate development, screening, and evaluation for searches
across the nonprofit, higher education, and public sectors. A keen
listener and project manager, Sarah is adept at matching candidate
biographies and backgrounds with our clients’ ever-evolving needs. In
addition to assisting with the search efforts for our clients, Sarah also
oversees Nonprofit Professionals’ own marketing efforts, fielding speaking
invitations, developing our e-newsletter, and coordinating the “NPAG U”
series. Prior to joining the firm, Sarah was a Director of Marketing
for Total Compliance Solutions in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and has held key
marketing positions with Sun Life Financial and Vitale, Caturano & Company,
Ltd. She also runs a small healthcare marketing consulting company
serving such clients as Beth Israel Deaconess HealthCare Affiliated
Physicians Group, Physician Chart Auditors, Abington Reproductive Medicine,
in addition to other healthcare start-up organizations. An accomplished
dance instructor and choreographer, Sarah is a member of and certified dance
instructor through the Dance Teachers’ Club of Boston. Sarah earned
her Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communications from Northeastern
University.
Jennifer
H.F. Tabola, Associate
Jennifer H.F. Tabola
works with nonprofit and socially responsible organizations to identify the
resources and strategies needed to address critical public sector issues. From serving as the Director of Training and Education
for the National Civilian Conservation Corps, to helping establish a
statewide early literacy initiative in Minnesota, to coaching social
entrepreneur grantees, Jennifer's career has bridged the nonprofit,
government, and philanthropic sectors. Inspired by
her passion for civic engagement, and her experience as a program officer
during the start-up of AmeriCorps, Jennifer and
her husband served with the United States Peace Corps in Quito, Ecuador,
where she helped develop the country's first environmental youth service
corps and collaborated with international and local NGOs to establish a
community mobile clinic serving residents transitioning from subsistence
agriculture to urban communities. Jennifer grew up
in Las Vegas, Nevada. She
earned a Bachelor's in Social Ecology, magna cum laude, from the University of California,
Irvine, and
served as an Executive Fellow focused on welfare to work policies within
the Office of the Governor of California. She
holds a Master's in Education from Harvard University,
with a concentration in Administration, Planning and Social Policy. An ardent lover of the natural world, Jennifer serves
on the Sierra Club's National Committee for Sustainable Consumption and
Chairs the Outdoor Classroom of her son's elementary school.
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