Nonprofit leaders are some of the most passionate changemakers in our world and Gail loves being able to help them bring their vision into focus and prioritize their time to increase impact and reduce burnout. She brings her full, authentic self to the work and has the ability to navigate seamlessly between aspirational vision and the essential infrastructure needed to support it. She knows what a tough job it can be to lead an organization, because she’s been there.
Over a 25-year career, Gail has helped nonprofit enterprises grow and develop. Most recently, she led the Decatur Education Foundation for 14 years as executive director – the organization’s first full-time employee – and built it into a high-impact organization with $2 million in assets. Gail is known for her authentic and highly collaborative leadership style. Under her leadership, the foundation developed programs to close the opportunity gap based on family income. She also led behavioral health initiatives, including the creation of mental health centers at the local high school and middle school. And she helped incubate other programs and organizations, such as a community makerspace, to strengthen the services offered to youth.
Prior to that she was the CEO of GOAL, a youth development organization that worked with adolescent girls. There she moved the organization from direct service to a partnership model, created a leadership curriculum and trained and supported a corps of facilitators
Gail believes strongly in peer networks of support and is a frequent presenter at national conferences and host of webinars geared toward supporting non-profit peers. She is a convener at heart whose core values collaboration and curiosity drive her work. Gail is passionate about coaching and supporting leaders and boards who seek to increase their impact and engage more deeply with their community. Among her areas of expertise: Organizational vision, creating and growing revenue channels, building organizational capacity, developing programs and teams that get results, and facilitating board development and engagement.
Gail’s belief that promoting equity and justice is the responsibility of an entire community led to her getting involved with A Long Talk, an anti-racism activation experience. As an integral part of the A Long Talk team, Gail co-created the organization’s national alumni project Pillars of Change, a year-long program focusing on social justice and antiracism education, conversation, and action.
Gail is a seasoned facilitator with experience designing experiential sessions in education, youth development, and corporate settings. For more information about some of the groups she has worked with click here.
