What My Partners Have to Say
Christine de Leon, Founder; and Kat Ling, CEO, Moonshot edVentures
“Andrea is a long-time partner and supporter of Moonshot edVentures. We’ve worked with Andrea for the past few years (and hopefully many more!). She’s facilitated trainings for our fellows, mainly entrepreneurs of color, to support their development in people leadership, management, and hiring. In addition to those workshops, she’s worked individually with many of our fellows to ensure that they are set up for success in launching their ventures—this support spans the gamut, from helping them create project plans, to designing and supporting facilitation in virtual programming, to helping develop pricing models and marketing strategies to schools and districts, to helping them solve adaptive leadership challenges. We know that when Andrea works with one of our fellows, they will walk away with clear next steps, resources, and a supporter for life. She is a thoughtful, passionate, highly dependable, and brilliant partner; our fellows are truly ready to thrive in launching innovative schools and programs for students after working with her and we cannot recommend her enough!”
Warren Chancellor, Managing Director of Strategy & Operations
Professional Education, Relay GSE
“Andrea has been my executive coach for a little over a year now and during our time together, she has supported me with many writing projects. Andrea has played a critical role in creating agendas for upcoming meetings, crafting job descriptions for new roles on my team, writing plans for tasks that need to be delegated to direct (and indirect) reports, as well as writing performance reviews for direct reports and other peers/colleagues. The amount of time that Andrea saves me by interviewing me about the details of the specific writing project and then writing everything on my behalf (for me to review and provide edits) is simply a game changer. What makes Andrea so effective is her ability to consistently ask the right questions, offer advice when appropriate, and pick up on every detail that I’ve thought of (and even the details I’ve missed!).”
Trisha Leon-Guerrero, Founder + Chief Experience Officer,
Experiences On Demand
"As a solo entrepreneur for a fast growing business, I needed a coach who could provide strategic guidance and serve as a trusted thought-partner. Andrea was one of the first people to come to mind when I started my search for a coach and it’s been wonderful working with her over the last year. One of our coaching goals and a top priority for me was to share my story authentically with others in a new industry and Andrea has been instrumental in helping me find compelling ways to do this. What I truly appreciate about her process is the care she takes in fully understanding the messages I’m trying to convey and how she will build my capacity by interviewing me, sending me drafts that match my voice, and being adaptable to meet my planning timelines. In our time together, we have collaborated on four writing projects, one of which is now becoming a podcast. None of this would have been possible without her support and guidance. I’m incredibly grateful for her partnership and her investment in my growth as a woman-owned business."
Steve Erickson, Executive Director, Teach For America Phoenix
“Of all the people I’ve ever worked with, Andrea may be the most compelling and creative. She is equally prolific in generating ideas and converting those ideas into powerful, convincing products – whether it be a vision for an event, a case statement, a written speech, an intricate program design, or anything in between. As a client, there is nothing more reassuring than having the total confidence and peace-of-mind that a truly outstanding product will be delivered to you. And that payoff multiplies when your high expectations are consistently exceeded. That is exactly what we’ve gotten every time we’ve worked with Andrea. Her dedication, care, passion, integrity, and brilliance are truly second to none. Work with Andrea and you will get more than you pay for – quality of the highest order, true lift of time and capacity, total dedication, personal attention, and joy in the process. I can’t overstate my belief in and recommendation of Andrea.”
Akshai Patel, Former CEO, Phoenix Collegiate Academy
“I brought Andrea in to help coach me with internal and external communications while leading Phoenix Collegiate Academy, a preK-12 school network in South Phoenix. Andrea helped me to find the words to say what I meant, and in a way that emotionally connected with folks who didn’t already know me well. Thanks to her help I was able to transform culture every time I addressed staff about key organizational news. Andrea also supported me to craft external messaging that helped me to connect with donors who then invested in our school network at a significantly higher rate. These successes were driven by Andrea's keen ability to identify what I needed most, dig into the details to help me get things done, and scaffold supports so that I could learn while achieving and build on prior successes. Compared to other coaches who simply dispense advice and hope you can implement, Andrea was invested in me achieving my goals in a way only the best coaches are.”
Alejandro Gibes de Gac, CEO and Founder, Springboard Collaborative
“As a coach, Andrea will patiently listen to a complex, thorny issue, then quickly untangle the problem, break it into manageable chunks, and brainstorm solutions. Not only that, but she'll swiftly send a follow-up message summarizing the conversation, highlighting next steps, and giving you a running start on your homework (e.g.: scripting comments for a difficult feedback conversation or drafting an email). Andrea does it all with a distinctively compassionate and reassuring manner. She offers an exceedingly rare combination of swift problem-solving with genuine warmth and care.
I found Andrea’s coaching so helpful that I couldn’t keep her to myself! I invited Aubrey, Springboard’s President, to join in the experience. With Andrea’s steady guidance, we created a multi-year vision for scaling Springboard’s impact exponentially. Were it not for this plan, the COVID-19 pandemic would have delivered a crippling blow to our organization. Instead, we have the vision, systems, and processes in place to respond nimbly. Springboard is now serving three times as many students this summer than last, in no small part because of Andrea!
Perhaps most importantly, Andrea’s coaching enabled Aubrey and I to clearly define our roles in relation to one another, and to establish working habits that have made the senior leadership team—and by extension, the whole organization—healthier than ever before. The time and money we invested in Andrea’s coaching is without question the highest-leverage investment Springboard has ever made.
So we doubled down! More like quadrupled down... Aubrey and I asked Andrea to coach all four of Springboard's vice presidents, each of which leads a major department. As she did for Aubrey and me, Andrea has helped each of these executives grow into their leadership, improve their management, and turbocharge their results. As always, she does so with her trademark blend of management know-how and personal instincts. In these uncertain and volatile times, Andrea is exactly the person you want to have around.”
Matt Kramer, CEO, The Wildflower Foundation; Former co-CEO, Teach for America
“Andrea is an extraordinary leader, a great visionary with the gift of bringing visions to life in the real world like few people I've ever encountered. In addition to this, she's also an extraordinary coach, whether as a manager or a consultant. She is a wonderful listener, and she's immensely persuasive. During my time working with Andrea at Teach For America, she designed and executed dozens of new events and initiatives—such as career-related gatherings for educators, social entrepreneurs and school leaders; identity-connected events for the TFA Indigenous community and school leaders of color; TFA's 25th anniversary event for more than 15,000 people; and fellowship programs for school system leaders and rural school leaders. Each was a beautiful and powerful expression of the essential qualities of a group and Andrea's deep and abiding commitment to make equitable educational opportunities available to all children.”
Kate Farrar, Senior Director, Regional Impact, Leadership for Educational Equity
“I sought out Andrea’s leadership expertise at a moment when I faced a unique combination of challenges due to staffing, strategic organizational initiatives, and the change management needed related to the global pandemic. The strategies that had worked for 17+ years of management were insufficient for this particular point in time. I needed a trusted, thoughtful partner to help me reflect on the options through which I could modify my practices both as an individual contributor and manager. Over the course of 4 sessions during a 1-month period, Andrea was able to help me clearly identify specific opportunities and begin to implement them in ways that demonstrated immediate outcomes. Andrea’s extraordinary skills were a unique gift that has paid dividends in all the months since our collaboration.”
Bill Spirer, Executive Director and Founder, Springfield Prep Charter School
“When we sought a consultant to help guide our capital campaign, we wanted someone who would actually do the work—not just advise on high level strategy and leave all the work to us. We wanted someone who would coach our team so that we could build fundraising expertise and capacity, and someone who would set ambitious goals and keep our team disciplined and driven towards them. To say Andrea delivered is an understatement. Andrea’s writing got the attention of funders and made our case in clear, compelling terms. She taught our team strategic fundraising skills through modeling, explaining her rationale, and providing thoughtful feedback during real-time coaching. And her extraordinary organization, discipline, and drive helped us surpass our campaign goal by more than $1 million. There’s no way we would have done this without her. If you have the chance to work with Andrea, do it.”
Sally Fuller, Board Member and Capital Campaign Chair, Springfield Prep Charter School
“Andrea was exceptional at supporting the building of our fundraising team, beginning with her enthusiasm and ability to listen and understand our vision and mission, which resulted in a powerful case statement. Together we looked at the local, regional and statewide funding landscape. A quick study, she researched national funding opportunities and wrote successful grants which emphasized the academic and cultural successes that are facilitating the closing of the achievement gap for our urban scholars. Our capital campaign has exceeded our goal by $1.2 million. No mean feat in a region where funding is not prolific. Ours is truly a story of a successful collaboration and shared success.”
Marianna Lucero, Founder, In Lak'ech Denver Arts
“I am new to the world of nonprofit and Andrea’s coaching services were absolutely perfect for me. Within the 5 months that I have been working with her, she has helped me get fiscal sponsorship by guiding me through the difficult and sometimes very confusing application process. During our work time together, she has helped me continue growing skills in fundraising, grant writing, and is currently supporting me in writing a letter of inquiry for my organization! Andrea is not only an expert in her field, but she also incredibly kind and supportive to her clients. I am grateful to have her as my coach!”
Candice Smith, Founder, Boss Generation
“My coaching sessions with Andrea are extremely productive. She is skilled at setting objectives and getting things done. I appreciate the progress and productivity that happens in our sessions. Every leader needs this kind of support and accountability. She is an outstanding executive coach!”
Bre Donnelly, Founder, Joy as Resistance
“Working with Andrea was unlike any other executive coaching experience I have ever had. Not only was she kind, helpful, and always responsive but she was also ridiculously skilled at what she does. It was incredibly refreshing to work with someone who can not only guide/advise but will also do the work with/for you. Every time I came to a session with Andrea, I left feeling more competent and confident in my next steps and knew that she would give her all to the project as if it was her own. Andrea helped me with my hiring process (from start to finish) for some pretty unique positions. The entire process (and more) was developed within 4 sessions and I have received positive feedback from candidates about the professionalism and cadence of the process. As a new entrepreneur who has never hired anyone, this is a strong testament to Andrea's work. Andrea is also a wonderfully nice and patient person to interact with. I entered our sessions with 50 conflicting ideas and caveats and came out with one clear and accomplishable pathway to success. I felt the entire time that she deeply cared about me as a leader and about the work I am doing. 10/10 would recommend.”