Mara Simmons

I’m a seasoned leadership coach and systems strategist with over two decades of experience designing and implementing organizational change in education, nonprofits, and startup ecosystems—across both U.S. and international contexts.

Most recently, I led the executive recruitment process for a charter school network in the South Bronx, bridging the work of a highly invested local hiring committee with a board that held a very different set of priorities for their next Executive Director. My role was to mediate, align, and ultimately help both groups articulate a shared vision of leadership. The successful hire was a result of trust-building, stakeholder coaching, and a structured process grounded in values-based decision-making.

Beyond search and placement, I coach leaders and facilitators across sectors to navigate complexity using a Design Thinking approach. I help teams clarify pain points, co-create solutions, and iterate with impact. Whether I'm working with school leadership teams in Nigeria adopting progressive ed-tech models or with nonprofit executives scaling equity-centered practices, I bring a global lens, deep facilitation skills, and a belief in building collective capacity.

I’ve also written leadership training handbooks for organizations working internationally, focused on helping emerging leaders adopt inclusive, tech-forward, and values-aligned strategies in their daily work. My materials are used by teams seeking to embed innovation and collaboration into their cultures.

What sets me apart is my ability to move fluidly between strategic design and executive-level coaching—supporting people and organizations to lead with clarity, purpose, and impact.