Dr. Kelli Peterson, Partner Consultant

kelli@lumenimpactgroup.com

Dr. Kelli Peterson is deeply invested in high-quality schools, having served as a teacher and school administrator across various cities including Brooklyn, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Nashville. Additionally, Dr. Peterson has served as a local system leader and state system leader as the Assistant Superintendent for the Louisiana Department of Education.

As a local system leader, she had the responsibility of overseeing charter school accountability, building the capacity of charter boards, development of new school strategy and the execution of the charter authorization process.

As a state system leader, she revised the state charter application to include intentional questions shifting to a community centered authorization approach, allocated $2M towards the development of New School Choice Pandemic Response Funds, developed an organizational structure to meet the needs of schools statewide in order to provide technical assistance and support to special education educators, allocated $1.2M of competitive funds to school systems to help support the cost of providing compensatory services to students with disabilities, collaborated with Louisiana State University to provide Social Emotional Learning and Academic Integration Professional Development for schools with an out of school suspension rate of double the national average for three consecutive years, and allocated $1M of the Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund to create a partnership with Ochsner Health to launch a virtual therapy program to provide access to free mental health virtual visits for all public K-12 educators.

Testimonials

"Lisa did a fantastic job with our entire strategic planning team. Her process was beyond organized. As a new administrator, I was able to lean on Lisa for her expertise and knowledge of strategic planning. She did everything from meeting organization and to facilitating subgroups, focus groups and staff culture surveys. Her work with the school board and administrative team was respectful, while also filled with appropriate advice and constructive feedback. I could not imagine going through this process without Lisa. She will continue to be a trusted resource for years to come."

Jamie DeWitt
School Leader, NexTech High School

"You were patient, confident, helpful and supportive, and you coaxed and lovingly nudged us through a process that on our own we wouldn’t have been able to do. It was a very pleasant experience, and even though we still have a lot of challenges ahead of us, we are better suited to meet them. "

Colin Sharkey
Executive Director, Association of American Educators

"Lisa Diaz and Lumen Impact provided invaluable support to Colorado Charter Facility Solutions during our start-up phase. I was the new non-profit organization’s executive director (and only employee at the time), and Lisa knew answers to questions that I did not even know to ask. She made sure the board of directors was set up correctly and that the organizational documents were in place. Lisa helped me establish the organization’s goals and ways to track progress. Lisa is organized, patient and kind, and worked quickly, thoroughly and collaboratively. She is a good listener and even acted as an executive coach/therapist at times. When necessary, Lisa can be direct, yet she is always focused on the goals of the organization and its success. I highly recommend Lisa Diaz and Lumen Impact Group. "

Jane Ellis
Executive Director, Colorado Charter Facility Solutions

"As a family-owned and operated company, we needed to preserve our culture and define our mission, vision and values better as we grew. Lumen Impact Group helped capture a variety of diverse perspectives and hopes for the future in a way that connected everyone involved. Lumen Impact Group helped us create a clear strategic focus and for our future stabilized our culture. Lisa also coached our leadership team in supporting implementation."

Mark Smith
President, Krapohl Ford & Lincoln

"I have worked with Lumen Impact Group at both the individual and organizational level. As a coach, Lisa has a natural ability to get to the heart of the matter quickly and to ask questions that help her clients translate insight into action. Each team member who has worked with Lisa in a coaching capacity has demonstrated visible growth that has positively impacted individual and team performance. As an organization, we are trying to be purposeful about the culture we are creating, as a means of best fulfilling our mission. Lumen Impact Group has been a tremendous thought partner along the way and has facilitated critical steps in a collaborative yet efficient and fun way. Our team was in awe at how much we accomplished collectively in a short period of time. We are moving toward our ideal culture much more quickly than I thought possible, and I have no doubt it is because of Lumen Impact Group’s guidance. "

Kasey Miller
Chief of Staff, National Association of Charter School Authorizers

"Lumen Impact Group has been critical in supporting Bluum’s efforts in Idaho to manage our $17.1 million federal Charter School Program grant. As one of the country’s first non-profit organizations to receive federal CSP funding, the stakes for our work are very high, and our efforts to help open, expand and replicate public charter schools face scrutiny. I sleep better knowing Lumen Impact Group has worked closely with us to build our processes, procedures and playbook for managing the responsibility of directing and overseeing a significant federal grant. I highly recommend them to others. They are true pros."

Terry Ryan
CEO, Bluum