In the tumultuous summer of 2020, I left my Vice President role at the largest Charter Organization in Los Angeles to become an independent educational consultant. If I’m honest, it was a terrifying leap into the unknown. I was plagued with questions like – how can I be a consultant that drives impact from outside an organization? How can I be an important value-add, while living up to my sense of purpose to make the world a better place?
Now four years into this endeavor, I have some insights into what it means to be an independent educational consultant, and how I have been able to fulfill my drive for impact. Here’s what I’ve learned:
- K-12 Commitment: By keeping my focus on the K-12 education space, I honor my commitment to utilize my talents to improve outcomes for underserved global majority students.
- Effortless Expertise: When I was VP, I remember how relieved I felt when we contracted consultants who lifted the load and required NO performance management or oversight. They professionally delivered without that extra layer of oversight work. Being on the receiving end of this relationship, I feel honored to project manage, internally hold deadlines, and deliver the highest performance possible so that my clients NEVER have to ‘manage’ the work I’m doing on their behalf. This ensures their time is preserved doing their important impact work.
- Strategic Support for Educational Organizations: Educational organizations are plagued with expansive scopes of work, urgency, and limited human resources. Often my role is as a thought leader, thought-partner, and owner of a key time bound project that can help relieve the pressures caused by these natural conditions. Examples include partnering with the CEO on key strategic leadership development efforts, designing and delivering professional development for staff and teachers, executive coaching, and leading equity learning for white staff.
- The Outsider Advantage: I have appreciated being an ‘outside’ thought-partner and strategist. As an outsider I can often see with fresh eyes the dimensions of the challenges my clients are facing. I can hold anonymous empathy interviews with staff members to solicit insights about how organizational problems are being experienced. I can impartially facilitate diverse stakeholders to innovatively solve these problems.
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership Commitment: Having had the privilege to invest time in my own learning journey, I’ve focused extensively on equity leadership and understanding my own relationship to whiteness and white supremacy culture norms. This personal and professional development has significantly enhanced my ability to support equity, diversity, inclusion change in the K-12 education space as a consultant. By sharpening my skills and perspectives, I am now better equipped to facilitate and guide leaders and staff on their equity journeys, fostering a more inclusive and equitable educational environment.
Now in the tumultuous fall of 2024, I am evermore aware of the need for my services. I am bearing witness to budget and staff cuts, the painful draw away from DEIB efforts and staffing (which complicates how we can engage in this work). I am also ever clear about how big the need to get education right for our students remains. There is not less work, but there is definitely less manpower to get the work done. If any of this speaks to a need your organization is facing and you’d like to explore how I could help, I have room for one more client this year. Feel free to check out my services offerings at my website, http://holonomyconsulting.com, reach out to me directly at mariah@holonomyconsulting.org or find time to meet with me on my Calendly.
