Our Approach
We believe that the most effective leaders and organizations lead by example – prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging along with continuous improvement. We partner with organizations that drive social change and are committed to doing what it takes to have meaningful and sustained impact.
Our Philosophy
Clarity
Strategy
Strategy
We bring coherence & understanding to your vision and focus on making your impact goals a reality.
Strategy
Strategy
Strategy
We help you plan for action to achieve your major objectives.
Equity
Strategy
Equity
We prioritize and embed Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging to work towards reversing historical inequities.
Areas of Expertise
DESIGN EQUITY-CENTERED INITIATIVES
- Develop, refresh and clarify the goals and strategies needed to achieve intended outcomes
- Stakeholder engagement as a co-designer
- Landscape analysis of similar or adjacent efforts
- Identify requirements for launch & implementation
- Plan for long-term sustainability
AMPLIFY EQUITY-BASED LEADERSHIP
- Strategic Advising for CEOs on key priorities
- Facilitate Senior Teams' ability to address equity and achieve the organization's mission together
- Board development in service of advancing the mission of the organization
- Identify skills, competencies, and supports for leaders pursuing equity
FACILITATE LEARNING & GROWTH
- Identify opportunities to deepen equity within organization culture and programming
- Facilitate action planning based on learning and recommendations
- Develop learning agendas and knowledge management strategies for organizations
- Develop peer, cross sector, and community focused learning groups to further deepen connections, strategies, and eliminate silos
Andrea Foggy-Paxton
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Andrea Foggy-Paxton is a proven leader in nonprofit and philanthropy. She previously founded The GROW Network and has over 25 years of executive experience in nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. Andrea currently serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Education Leaders of Color, leading the Social Studies Accelerator and as a Senior Director for Frontline Solutions.
Most recently, she served as the Managing Director of Partner Strategy at The Broad Center, leading efforts to collaborate with urban school systems and strategic alliances to accelerate excellence and equity for all students. Prior to joining The Broad Center, Andrea Foggy-Paxton was Executive Vice President at Reasoning Mind, a nonprofit organization focused on transforming math education in the United States. Andrea successfully orchestrated enrollment campaigns for research projects and State of Texas Education funded contract resulted in 34,000 new students served, curriculum adoption in Texas and California.
Andrea also served as a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for six years. Andrea was responsible for developing and launching a $25 million Innovative Professional Development portfolio and challenge to help districts provide a differentiated, data-driven, collaborative, and technology-enabled professional development system. Her leadership in grantmaking provided new partnerships between charter schools and public-school systems to share best practices on teacher development, increased application of research in creating technology driven professional learning solutions and created new models of technology enabled supports to teachers and students. In addition, Andrea was responsible for managing the Foundation’s matching grants in the inaugural Department of Education Investing in Innovation Fund.
As a National Urban Fellow at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Andrea supported the launch of the More in the Middle Campaign, which is a Baltimore City campaign to close the economic gap for African American families. Prior to working in philanthropy, Andrea spent a decade leading start-up nonprofits and initiatives, serving as the co-director of LA Youth at Work, national field director of Rock the Vote, and executive director of the Tavis Smiley Foundation. She has consulted with numerous nonprofit organizations and served on several Boards including the Vice Chair, of the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University, Advisory Board for Public Allies National, Chair of the Development and Program Committee of Coro Southern California, and Schools Committee member and full Board member for LA Promise Fund.
Team Members
Rachael Shrout
Rakhee Patel, PhD.
Rakhee Patel, PhD.
Chief of Staff & Consultant
Rachael Shrout is an independent consultant with over 15 years of experience in non-profit strategy and talent operations. Her expertise includes designing new initiatives with a focus on bringing in research and stakeholder input, integrating knowledge management and evaluation strategies into work, and project management across a wide range of project types and scopes.
Prior to consulting, Rachael spent over a decade at The Broad Center in various roles. Most recently she served as the Director, Partner Strategy where she led development of The Broad Center’s partner organization support and knowledge management strategy. Her work also included research and development of resources and tools relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion, senior team effectiveness, and leadership development for education leaders. She also worked on The Broad Center’s alumni support team where she supported individual leaders on career search and leadership development as well as managed alumni learning events. She began her time at The Broad Center on the recruitment team where she managed team operations for all program recruitment cycles.
Prior to joining The Broad Center, Rachael worked in human resources at DreamWorks and as a grassroots organizer in Boston and Pennsylvania. Rachael participated in the first cohort of Coro’s Lead LA program which is designed to push professionals to explore all aspects of an issue and navigate varying stakeholder interests. Rachael holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Occidental College.
Rakhee Patel, PhD.
Rakhee Patel, PhD.
Rakhee Patel, PhD.
Chief Impact Officer & Consultant
Dr. Rakhee Patel is an analytical and strategic leader focused on using research and collaboration to inform decision-making and increase impact for equity-focused organizations. She has over 15 years of experience in non-profit evaluation and strategy, business and statistical consulting, marketing and data sciences, educational research, and teaching. Her expertise includes facilitating collaborative learning and strategic alignment sessions, designing research studies, developing diverse and high-performing teams, identifying synergies within organizations, and using data and visualization to share compelling stories and actionable insights.
Rakhee has worked with several nonprofits nationwide to articulate and assess their pathways to impact with a focus on equitable practices and outcomes. Previously, Rakhee was the Senior Director of Data, Research and Evaluation at The Broad Center where she led evaluation efforts to assess the effectiveness and impact of TBC's programs within K-12 education as well as research efforts in the areas of leadership development and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She created and implemented strategy for org-wide evaluation, knowledge management, and data and technology systems.
Prior to The Broad Center, Rakhee was an advanced analytics expert at Hypothesis, designing large-scale marketing research studies, and has additional statistical, economic, and litigation consulting experience. Rakhee was also a researcher and award-winning teaching fellow at UCLA, teaching courses and working on multiple National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded statistical and education projects to make statistics curriculum and learning more accessible to all students. She currently serves as a volunteer tutor and test prep team lead for Minds Matter Southern California.
Rakhee earned her doctorate and MS degrees in statistics at UCLA and holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in economics from Wellesley College.
Melody Moon
Rakhee Patel, PhD.
Melody Moon
Research & Program Manager
Melody Moon is a consultant specializing in program management, employee engagement, data analysis, and process improvement. She has a wide range of skills and professional interests derived from her roles in the education and tech sector, as well as serving on HR, program management, recruitment, and alumni support teams. She has led projects ranging from selection and implementation of organizational tools and platforms, designing and facilitating manager and employee trainings, designing and managing employee onboarding programs, recruiting and managing a DEI committee, designing and leading Employee Resource Group policies and programs, administering coaching programs and 360 feedback cycles, and designing data infrastructure and process automations in Salesforce.
Most recently, Melody served as a People Programs Manager for EZ Texting, a remote-first SaaS company and SMS platform for business users. There, she managed the organization’s DEI strategy, remote-first employee engagement and culture-building practices, internal communications, and learning and development programs. Prior to her experience in the tech sector, she worked at The Broad Center, a leadership development organization for mid-career professionals and superintendents in education management, working across the program, recruitment, and alumni support team to help scale programs, align efforts, and reduce operational friction.
Melody started her career at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, co-managing a college access and retention program for over 2,000 high school graduates annually. She recently served on Defy Ventures’ SoCal Associate’s Board, participated as a Fellow in the New Leaders Council Los Angeles Engaged Fellowship, and currently volunteers as a peer mentor for APIA Scholars. Melody holds a B.A. in Sociology from Bowdoin College.
Tom Noble
Leslie Martinez
Melody Moon
Consultant
Tom Noble is a consultant with over 15 years of experience building programs and supporting leaders in nonprofit and education organizations. Tom’s work has included program design, network building, convening and event strategy and operations, launching many new initiatives and business plan development.
Previously, Tom led the Strategic Engagements team at Jobs for the Future (JFF), where he drove the design and execution of convenings and content for the organization. This included leading JFF’s Horizons Summit, a national conference focused on the intersection of education and workforce development. Tom also built out several new initiatives to amplify JFF’s work and drive engagement across the education and workforce development ecosystem, including new media channels and a series of CEO-level convenings.
Tom also spent 7 years at The Broad Center, where he led alumni engagement and supported their national network of education leaders. He managed the design and execution of Broad Center alumni convenings focused on talent, operations, finance, community engagement, senior-level leadership, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. He also spearheaded the strategy and systems for the Broad Center’s alumni career support and coaching programs.
Earlier in his career, Tom worked on the national development team at Teach for America and taught eighth grade math as a TFA corps member. Tom has an MBA and Masters in Education from Arizona State University and a BA from Cornell University.
Aaqilah Wright
Leslie Martinez
Leslie Martinez
Communications Analyst
Aaqilah Wright is currently positioned as a Communications Analyst with Foggy Paxton Consulting. In May 2021, Aaqilah graduated from Syracuse University, Magna Cum Laude, studying Writing & Rhetoric.
During her time at Syracuse University, Aaqilah supported research projects concerning equitable education in Los Angeles, the Metaphysics of Reality, and Childhood Development.
Ultimately, Aaqilah spends much of her time investigating the Human Condition to figure out ways we can improve unfavorable conditions. She believes it is imperative to seek knowledge and understand in every avenue.
Leslie Martinez
Leslie Martinez
Leslie Martinez
Business Manager
Leslie Martinez helps purpose-driven consulting businesses that are scaling to a team ditch the overwhelm and take their operations to the next level with proactive processes and organization.
Leslie specializes in Operations management.
OTHER COLLABORATORS
Aiko Bethea
Eurmon Hervey, Jr.
Aiko Bethea
Founder & CEO,
RARE Coaching
Kia Chatmon
Eurmon Hervey, Jr.
Aiko Bethea
Founder & Principal Consultant,
Heart for the Community Consulting
Eurmon Hervey, Jr.
Eurmon Hervey, Jr.
Eurmon Hervey, Jr.
Principal Consultant,
Genesis Ed Solutions
Joy Gorham Hervey
Joy Gorham Hervey
Eurmon Hervey, Jr.
Principal Consultant,
Genesis Ed Solutions
Manami Kano
Joy Gorham Hervey
Manami Kano
Philanthropic Advisor & Consultant
Erin Keller
Joy Gorham Hervey
Manami Kano
Talent Consultant
Sandra Licon
Rasheeda Washington
Rasheeda Washington
Strategic Advisor & Consultant
Rasheeda Washington
Rasheeda Washington
Rasheeda Washington
Consultant & Founder,
Beyond Sixth
Our Partners & Clients
