Background:
Katie Vivalo Rouse is a partner with Bellwether in the Strategic Advising practice area. She brings deep expertise in growth and expansion planning, human capital strategies, and operational effectiveness. Katie is passionate about supporting teams and leaders to build and create diverse, equitable, and inclusive teams. Katie works across the state, district, and individual school levels, including partnering with nonprofit organizations. She has advised numerous charter schools in growth and replication and has worked closely with school leaders to develop improvement plans.
Prior to joining Bellwether, Katie was chief operating officer and chief growth officer at DC Prep. She completed The Broad Residency at Chicago Public Schools and worked as a consultant and case team leader at Bain & Company. Katie started her career working in nonprofit capacity building in Washington, D.C., and New York.
Katie holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems; an MBA from Harvard University; a bachelor’s degree in education, sociology and anthropology from Swarthmore College; and an executive certificate in nonprofit management from Georgetown University. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her family and volunteers with Arlington Public Schools.
Why I do this work:
My family moved a number of times when I was in elementary school — I had six school transitions during that time. As disruptive as those transitions were, I loved school and my K-12 education opened doors to postsecondary opportunities that were transformative for me. I do this work because I believe in equity and I believe in the transformative power of education. I believe every child should be supported to achieve their potential and dreams, whatever they may be, and that structurally and systemically we do not yet support all children to do so — most especially students of color and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. At Bellwether, it is a privilege to partner with education leaders in planning for and making strategic decisions that will shape the future work for their organizations and the opportunities for generations to come.
Experience at Bellwether:
Strategic Planning; New Organization Design and Launch; Growth and Expansion Strategy; Human Capital/Organizational Design; Performance Improvement/Sustainability; CMO/Charter School Operators; District Schools
Client segments served:
K-12 Schools; School Districts; CMO/Charter Schools; State Education Agencies; Nonprofit Organizations
Sample clients:
OSSE (Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Washington, D.C.), SchoolSmart Kansas City, LEAD Charter School/Newark Opportunity Youth Network, MedStar Georgetown Center for Wellbeing in School Environments (WISE)