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.