team members

About us

Meet our team

We bring a passion for progress and deep expertise in social change.

Monitor Institute by Deloitte's multidisciplinary team brings a diverse blend of cross-sector experience, and a balance of analytic capability with sensitivity to the workings of human systems.

Dana O’Donovan

Social Impact and Monitor Institute by Deloitte Leader, US Purpose and DEI Office.

Dana is the Social Impact and Monitor Institute by Deloitte Leader, US Purpose and DEI Office. Her work on issues of social impact strategy and implementation has been published in Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Chronicle of Philanthropy and Fast Company.

Prior to becoming Monitor Institute’s Chief Operating Officer in 2010, she led human assets strategy at Teach For America and started her career as a consultant at Monitor Group.

Dana has served on many nonprofit, foundation and government boards. Currently, she serves on the North Carolina Council for Women, the North Carolina Aquarium Society Board, ADAP Capital Guidance Council, The University of North Carolina’s Kenan Institute Board of Mentors and the Board of DREAMS of Wilmington. Dana graduated from The University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar.

Contact Dana O'Donovan

Joanna Burleson

Managing Director

Joanna works closely with social innovators and their organizations to scale their impact on some of society’s most complex social challenges. She is a leader in Monitor Institute by Deloitte's Adaptive Strategy practice. She has deep expertise in education and workforce development and her work spans across all dimensions of social sector strategy, from visioning and growth planning to developing operating and economic models.

Joanna’s work builds on over a decade of strategic consulting experience across the corporate and social sectors, both in the US and abroad. She began her consulting career with Monitor Group and brings this experience to Monitor Institute by Deloitte, where she helps to tackle some of the most meaningful and important strategic problems facing the social sector today. Prior to her time with Monitor, Joanna worked at Charles River Associates, conducting complex economic and statistical analysis for antitrust litigation. She obtained her B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and her MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles. She lives in Boston with her husband and three children.

Contact Joanna Burleson

Kerri Folmer

Managing Director

Kerri advises organizations in the public, private, and social sectors as they strive to find innovative solutions to today's complex social and environmental challenges.

She has over 20 years of experience leading organizations through transformational change, defining and adapting strategy, and developing new business models. Prior to joining Deloitte, Kerri was the chief of staff and strategy at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which gives her a deep understanding of the unique leadership and operational challenges of foundations and nonprofit organizations. Starting with a degree in psychology (State Diego State University) and graduate degree in business (Santa Clara University), Kerri has long been fascinated by the human will to create change, and its inherent complexities.

Kerri and her two daughters, Toni and Shelby, live in the Bay Area and spend time together cultivating a large family garden, riding horses, and working out together at their favorite boxing gym.

Contact Kerry Folmer

Gabriel Kasper

Managing Director

Gabriel has spent nearly two decades helping leading funders and nonprofits understand the changing context for their work and make sense of what those shifts will mean for both what they do and how they do it. He tracks emerging trends inside and outside the field and translates cutting-edge commercial innovation methods into new approaches for addressing pressing philanthropic and social-sector challenges.

His work with funders at Monitor Institute by Deloitte is grounded in first-hand experience, both as the program officer for philanthropy at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where he was responsible for directing how the foundation used its resources to increase the effectiveness of philanthropy as a field, and as a manager of neighborhood programs at a local affiliate of the East Bay Community Foundation. He has more than 15 years of experience as a consultant, providing applied research, program design, and strategic advising services to foundations, nonprofits, corporations, and international agencies. 

He is a prolific writer and thinker about the future of philanthropy and new opportunity spaces in the social sector, having co-authored the Monitor Institute by Deloitte publications What's Next for Philanthropy: Acting Bigger and Adapting Better in a Networked World, On the Brink of New Promise: the Future of US Community Foundations, Intentional Innovation, and Working Wikily: Social Change with a Network Mindset. He has also published and spoken widely on topics including social media tools, diversity and identity-based philanthropy, social investing, and foundation collaboration. He is the designer and creator of several innovative tools for improving philanthropic practice, including the Strategy Landscape™ tool for visualizing foundation funding flows and the Foundation Sidecar Funds platform for helping individual donors piggyback on the grantmaking choices of established foundations. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wesleyan University and holds a master's in city planning from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was captain of the men's ultimate frisbee team.

Contact Gabriel Kasper

Allan Ludgate

Managing Director

Allan has dedicated his career to helping business, non-profit, and government leaders tackle their toughest problems and create impact in a dynamic world. This unifying theme in his work links together a highly diverse client portfolio, spanning grocery retailers, education non-profits, and beer companies. Allan finds his wide-ranging experience a plus, with the most powerful insights often coming from recognizing patterns and solutions that can travel from one domain to another. Within Monitor Institute by Deloitte, Allan leads our "Education Posse," a group of practitioners working to address one of our most vexing challenges–closing the education attainment gap for low-income youth.

Allan's path began with jazz, when he picked up a B.S. in Jazz Studies (magna cum laude) and an M.B.A. in management (1st in class), both from New York University. He is a Wholistic Fitness master student, a lover of Boston sports teams, and the lucky husband of Maria and papa of Lucas and Isaac.

Contact Allan Ludgate

Tracie Neuhaus

Tracie relishes working with passionate and driven leaders to help them develop innovative solutions and blaze new paths for tackling some of society's biggest problems. She draws upon over 15 years of experience working across the for-profit and non-profit sectors, both domestically and abroad. With the Monitor Institute by Deloitte, she advises leaders of foundations and nonprofits on issues related to strategy, growth, and operational effectiveness, with particular experience in the fields of workforce development, youth development, and education.

Tracie has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining the Monitor Institute by Deloitte in 2011, Tracie spent several years as part of Monitor Group's commercial practice in Europe, consulting clients in the life sciences and consumer goods sectors. She started her career as a financial analyst, contributing to her interest in organizations operating at the intersection of the business and social sectors. Based in San Francisco, Tracie can be found most often in the mountains—either skiing or hiking—or off discovering a new country, culture, or cuisine.

Core Team

Jasmine Arai

Jasmine serves as a thought partner for organizations during times of change, with over a decade of experience working with leaders to influence and drive systemic change within their organizations and across their industries. She has consulted for nonprofits and corporations to improve organizational effectiveness, create equitable talent development programs, and build diverse and inclusive cultures. Prior to joining the Monitor Institute, Jasmine worked in Deloitte's Human Capital practice focusing on organization and talent strategy for technology and life sciences clients. She is passionate about working collaboratively across industries and sectors to drive social change.

Jasmine earned her BA from the University of Michigan and her MS from Northwestern University. Jasmine dedicates her time to supporting community organizations delivering positive impact in underserved communities. She volunteers in a variety of capacities with local nonprofits, working as a tutor, mentor, and career coach. Jasmine explores libraries in every country she visits, but she enjoys trips to her neighborhood library in Los Angeles with her husband and son the most.		  
   
Sarah Brayton

Sarah is passionate about harnessing the power of stakeholders across the corporate, public, and non-profit sectors to solve complex social issues–particularly within workforce development and education. Sarah’s background in consulting blends experience with clients across the private sector, higher education, foundations, and nonprofits on engagements relating to business model innovation, organic growth, and operating model design. She has also helped design, launch, and scale Deloitte initiatives including Courageous Principals, a three-day leadership training for public school principals, and Pathfinder, a workforce development program launched in collaboration with Salesforce.

Sarah graduated with an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management where she was the Student Association President and graduated Magna Cum Laude from USC with a BA in Economics. Sarah lives in San Francisco and can often be found hiking, backpacking, and skiing in the surrounding area.
 
Bridget Brennan

Bridget has over 10 years of experience helping clients navigate complex projects and problems. She began her career working with clients on their globalization efforts through translation and localization; as a management consultant, Bridget has worked across Life Sciences, Insurance, and Technology, before eventually focusing on social impact topics. Bridget is passionate about the role and responsibilities of business, big and small, in society. She has worked with social entrepreneurs in the US and abroad and with multi-national corporations on their social impact efforts. She led Deloitte’s collaboration with the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit, focusing on how the private sector can help address mounting humanitarian crises. She has also worked with a number of non-profits in the areas of health and human services and education.

Bridget has an MBA with a concentration in Sustainable Enterprise and a certificate in International Development from The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son.
 
Lauren Diaz

Lauren has over a decade of experience working in the social impact sector, with roles in organizations ranging from frontline NGO to philanthropy groups. Prior to joining Monitor Institute by Deloitte, Lauren focused on programming and operations at the Skoll Global Threats Fund and Ending Pandemics initiative. She also worked in fundraising for social service programs in San Francisco, as well as served as an English teacher in Quito, Ecuador.

Lauren graduated with an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management where she served on Net Impact’s leadership team and graduated from University of San Diego with a BA in Political Science and Communication Studies. She volunteers as a tutor for Reading Partners and for nonprofits that promote inclusivity for people with special abilities.
 
Rhonda Evans

As the co-lead of Monitor Institute by Deloitte's impact measurement program, Rhonda works with clients to design measurement and learning systems that help organizations grow their social impact. Rhonda has more than fifteen years of experience using data, research, and measurement to promote well-being. Previously, Rhonda served as the Director of Research of the for-benefit start-up GoodGuide, a business that enabled consumers to make more informed buying choices. Rhonda was the co-founder of an applied research consultancy focused on health, environmental and working conditions issues whose work has been published in law and policy journals; mentioned in newspapers such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Guardian (U.K.); and, recognized on the floor of the United States Senate. Rhonda holds a social science Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and was also a postdoctoral fellow and visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Institute for Labor and Employment.
 
Jenny Hoang

Jenny has 15 years of professional services experience, with the last decade focused on strategy consulting and working with social sector organizations and their stakeholders toward organizational transformation. She has experience in vision and strategy development and implementation and is dedicated to supporting purpose-driven organizations in effectively fulfilling their missions for scalable impact.

Jenny specializes in strategic foresight, social innovation, and equity-centered design and incorporates futures research and scenario planning in her work to ensure that her clients are prepared for continuously changing landscapes. Prior to joining Monitor Institute, she worked with clients ranging from large established institutions to early-stage startups across a variety of sectors including education, sustainability, nonprofit, local government, philanthropy, and technology.

Jenny received her MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and her BA in Political Science with a minor in Sociology from University of California, San Diego. She is a community organizer promoting equity and advancement for historically marginalized and underinvested communities.
 
Nahal Jalali-Farahani

Nahal is passionate about working with diverse leaders—particularly those serving marginalized communities—to enable systemic change. In particular, she advises clients across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors in the areas of innovation, monitoring and evaluation, and strategic growth. She is especially interested in how the arts, culture, and creativity can serve as tools for innovation and catalysts for social change.

Prior to joining the Monitor Institute, Nahal worked in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Strategy and Analytics practice advising international donor organizations—as well as leading thought leadership around the need to cultivate pathways to inclusive work for survivors of human trafficking, refugees, and the formerly incarcerated. She began her career working for international development nonprofit and research organizations and earned her Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University. Outside of her role at Deloitte, Nahal is an avid ceramic artist and advocate for the arts across Los Angeles County.
 
Charlotte Johnson

Charlotte is energized by work that aims to address society’s hairiest challenges – equitable education, health, and economic opportunity. She loves working with leaders who are passionate about facing those challenges head-on through innovative, thoughtful solutions. She is also fascinated by what can be achieved when public and private sector organizations partner together to align their impact.

Prior to joining the Monitor Institute, Charlotte was a part of Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Customer Strategy & Applied Design practice where she leveraged primary research and human-centered design processes to better identify customer needs, mostly working with health care and life sciences clients. Charlotte joined Deloitte after earning her MBA at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, prior to which she spent ten years working in education, first as a middle school teacher and then as a manager of IBM’s corporate citizenship education programs. Charlotte earned her MS in Education from Pace University and her BA in Spanish from Skidmore College. She lives outside of New York City with her husband, daughter, and boxer mix, Hank.
 
Mariam Mansury

Mariam is known for being a fierce advocate, an excellent communicator, and a creative problem solver. She has over 15 years of experience in consulting and philanthropy at the national and international levels. Mariam has worked with high-level government, philanthropic, and nonprofit leaders to achieve transformative change through strategy design and evaluation, organizational learning, and a meaningful focus on equity and inclusion. She has deep experience in gender equity and has advised over a dozen national governments on how to create, implement, and measure high-impact national security and development strategies that elevate the roles of women in decision making.

Prior to joining Monitor Institute, Mariam created and led the Families and Individuals Community of Practice at a consulting firm specializing in philanthropy and impact investing. She received a Master of Public Policy at the Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Political Science from Boston College. Mariam lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband and two boys.
 
Amanda Olsen

Amanda believes in the power of collaboration to solve the world's most complex social problems. She has consulted for numerous nonprofits and foundations, with experiences ranging across strategy, operations, and organizational transformation. Amanda has a deep passion for education and has a love for travel and has gone on numerous volunteer trips to consult social entrepreneurs across the globe. Her prior work at Deloitte focused on helping executives at the world's largest retailers and consumer product companies find their greatest collective wisdom through joint strategic planning efforts.

Amanda graduated with highest honors from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a dual degree in Finance and Marketing and earned an MBA and a certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. At Stanford, Amanda was professionally trained as an executive coach and also took numerous classes at the design school, where she found that her biggest "ah-has" often come when putting herself directly in the shoes of the person she is trying to help.
 
Amna Qamar
Amna is passionate about serving as a thought-partner to C-Suite leaders in organizations across a variety of sectors to address social and environmental challenges at an organizational level. She gets energy from connecting with staff and Board members to understand their organization’s challenges and help their organizations realize their full potential.

Prior to joining the Monitor Institute, Amna worked for a social impact consulting firm that helps businesses, philanthropies, and nonprofits accelerate their positive social and environmental impact. Amna began her career working for the U.S. Department of State in the Office of Foreign Assistance Resources where she oversaw the budget for development programs in South and Central Asia and ensured that programming advanced U.S. foreign policy goals. She also has experience working in philanthropy, partnering with high net worth donors in Silicon Valley to facilitate their grantmaking via Donor Advised Funds.

Based in San Francisco, you can often find Amna at a concert, hiking the hills of the city and surrounding areas, and spending quality time with her friends and family.
 
Jen Smith

Jen is passionate about building bridges between education and meaningful employment. She is particularly interested in how to work across the public, private, and non-profit sectors to support children and families. Jen believes workforce development and social entrepreneurship have a big role to play in improving the lives of those most vulnerable in our society.

Prior to joining the Monitor Institute, Jen worked in Deloitte’s Strategy and Analytics practice, focusing on market growth and the social determinants of health. Jen began her career at Teach for America as an eighth grade English teacher, where she also taught English as a Second Language and Special Education. During her time with TFA, she worked as the Director for Teacher Leadership Development, where she coached teachers on instructional best practice, leadership, and intersectional identity development. She is proud to have led TFA’s expansion to rural Oklahoma, where she grew up.
 

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