Meet the team
Michelle founded Leading Elephants to provide a proof point that achieving great impact and caring for the humans involved don’t have to be exclusive.
Prior to forming Leading Elephants in 2010, Michelle served as Senior Leadership Director for The Broad Residency, a fellowship program designed to place, train and develop talented leaders in urban education. In this role, she designed the Residency’s comprehensive leadership curriculum, led a team of transformational leadership coaches and managed communities of practice to support residents in maximizing their impact and development. Michelle began her career at PwC where she was one of only two women partners in the Firm’s US Mergers and Acquisitions practice.
She is obsessed with far-flung global adventures with her husband and twin boys and thrives on the adrenaline rush of a good skydive or powder day on the slopes.
CEO.
Breakthrough Coach. Org Culture Geek.
MICHELLE MOORE HERNANDEZ
Superpower:
Michelle gets at the heart of complex leadership challenges, surfacing unspoken conversations in ways that bring healing and possibility.
As Director at Leading Elephants, Rene coaches senior leaders and designs and facilitates learning opportunities that meet individual and organizational needs. Prior to working at Leading Elephants, Rene worked at Achievement First where she founded, designed and facilitated the Early Career Leadership Program, a cohort-based leadership development program for associates, and led alumni strategy and operations at the Charter Network Accelerator, a cohort-based leadership development program for system-level leaders of charter school networks. Rene began her career at Harlem Children’s Zone as a Dean of School Culture.
Rene lives on the West Coast with her two dogs. She enjoys spending time with her loved ones, fitness (distance running, kickboxing, strength training, and hiking), and cooking.
Rene Morgan
Director.
Experience Curator.
Capacity Builder.
Superpower:
Rene curates experiences that support leaders in building their capacity and confidence.
As Managing Director at Leading Elephants, Amber helps to extract the magic in human-centered leadership and create products that meet the array of organizational needs.
Prior to working at Leading Elephants, Amber served as a leader in several capacities at Achievement First. In her early years at the charter management organization, she led a team of data strategists and supported many cross-cutting initiatives. Later, Amber served as a chief of staff in the COO Office. Amber has also served as a coach, strategy consultant, and interim Chief of Staff with charter networks across the US. Amber’s early career was as an economic consultant at Analysis Group where she supported expert witnesses testifying in corporate litigation.
Amber is based in Menlo Park, California. She loves her family, travel, her faith, good food, and the impromtu, cheezy meme.
Managing Director. Strategic Leader. Jane of All Trades.
AMBER MACKAY
Superpower:
Amber turns messy, ethereal ideas into concrete, achievable realities.
As Operations and Communications Manager at Leading Elephants, Jessica supports the team in developing clear, efficient, and creative human-centered solutions for the organization and its clients. Prior to working at Leading Elephants, Jessica served the brilliant students of her community as the Network and Communications Manager for the Greater Delta Teach For America region. With community-focused projects and a multi-media lens, she shined a spotlight on the efforts in her community and the immense beauty, resilience, and importance of equity-driven work. Her professional career began as a social media manager and then project manager for her local United Way.
As a karaoke queen and foodie, she enjoys nights out on the town with her husband in Dallas, TX and spirited debates on any manner of topic with friends and family.
JESSICA WALKER
OperationS AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER. COMMUNITY BUILDER. STORYTELLER.
Superpower:
Jessica develops systems that empower others to work towards ambitious goals with confidence, courage, and care.
Our contributOrs
Leading Elephants works with a network of consultants and coaches with a range of experiences. Here are some of our colleagues that are currently engaged as consultants:
ALICIA REYNA
Alicia is an experienced strengths based talent strategist and people leader with a strong focus on creating human-centered organizations that foster belonging and well-being. With 13 years of human resources experience and serving her community as an elected school board trustee, she brings her passion fordual language education, bilingualism, and creating identity affirming workplaces and schools and experiences where adults learn, grow, and thrive together.
As a coach and facilitator, Alicia supports leaders to discover and explore what they are naturally great at and helps them leverage those gifts and talents to make an impact and lead change in ways that are fulfilling and energizing. She is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, Senior Certified Professional recognized by the Society of Human Resource Management(SHRM-SCP) and trained in Mediation for Social Justice and Restorative Dialogue.
STRENGTHS HUNTER
OUR COMMUNITY
At Leading Elephants, we expand the community of support to bring diverse and technical skills to complex challenges. Where appropriate, we partner with other organizations to help our clients receive help they need most.
PARTNERS With Deep Expertise
Diversity, Equity, And
Inclusion Partners
Academic strategy and
implementation partners
Board Expertise
Beloved Community
Dawan Julien
De-Lea Allen
Giovani Escudero
Illuminate Collaborative
Natalie Basham
Attuned Education Partners
Bellwether
Bellwether
Cristine Nardi
We seek to provide a seamless experience when our clients engage with multiple partners.
We work to jointly scope an initiative and what is needed. Often, our partner will bring deep expertise and technical credibility and will facilitate meetings and advise on the “what” of an initiative. Leading Elephants may support in the initiative design, stakeholder engagement, cultural healing, leadership coaching, and other elements of the “how” experience.
See how Leading Elephants works with our partners to meet each organization's unique needs.
Leadership Consulting Case Study
Our Client's
Story
Our Charter Network (OCN)* came to Leading Elephants for help with navigating:
1. Financial Woes
2. Leadership Turnover
3. A Fractured Culture
What Leading
Elephants did
—Conducted 1:1 diagnostic conversations
—Facilitated shared spaces to address culture challenges
—Guided development of new commitments, norms, and a set of new conversations to translate pinches and wins
—Provided differentiated support for key leaders through their phased decisions with coaching
What our
partner did
—Invested in their Central Office Team who became powerful, more optimistic narrators of the network's story
—Expanded the dialogue and transparency around real issues for their team and stakeholders
—Developed solutions to budgeting issues
—Fostered a network-wide commitment to a new, unified culture