Client: A school district's senior equity leader.
Services: Executive coaching, framework development, organizational design support, equity leadership consulting, leadership development, organizational change management.
The Challenge
A district's top equity leader was navigating a superintendent transition at the same time her own team's structure was in flux, with new positions being integrated, unclear reporting relationships, and a network of more than 175 equity liaisons across the district who still needed consistent support regardless of what was happening above them.
She needed a thinking partner who could help her keep the district's equity strategy and leadership development work moving and coherent while the organizational ground shifted underneath it. The challenge required both executive leadership support and organizational development strategy to maintain continuity during a significant period of change.
The Approach
Lisa provided ongoing executive coaching and strategic advisory support focused on both the immediate and the structural:
- Helped design a tiered framework for the equity team's work, sequencing what needed to launch immediately (Tier 1 supports) against longer-term leadership development and capacity building
- Worked through role clarity, organizational design, and communication questions as a new shared position was integrated into the team
- Designed a sustainable cadence of support for the 175+ equity liaisons, with quarterly summits paired with monthly virtual touchpoints, so frontline equity leadership and districtwide equity work didn't stall during the transition
- Delivered structured meeting memos and strategic recommendations after each session, giving the client a running record of decisions and open threads she could act on independently between coaching sessions
The Outcome
The equity leader came out of the engagement with a clear, tiered operating framework for her team, a defined support cadence for her full liaison network, and role clarity for a newly integrated team member, allowing the district's equity strategy and organizational development work to stay on track through a period of significant organizational change.
The engagement provided the leadership structure, organizational clarity, and capacity-building framework needed to support consistent equity work across the school district during a leadership transition.
Details in this case study have been generalized to protect the confidentiality of the client and district.
