From the age of ten, when she asked for a chalkboard for her birthday, Elisa knew she wanted to be a teacher. That calling manifested into a career spanning three decades of teaching, leading and consulting.
​
Elisa consults with school districts and organizations helping to transform teacher, school and district-level teams to advance learning opportunities and outcomes for all students and educators. She also works with corporate clients, whose mission is one of service and positive impact, who are looking to improve as a learning organization.
Past professional experience includes: teacher, literacy coach and assistant principal of instruction in the Boston Public Schools and adjunct professor for teacher action research at Boston College and consultant for Teachers21. She worked as national director at the non-profit, Teach Plus, where she developed and led the Turnaround Teacher Teams initiative program in schools across six cities. This work involved creating a robust system of training and support to teacher leaders in chronically underperforming schools, empowered to facilitate their teams and spearhead change initiatives to achieve swift gains for students.
​
On a personal note, Elisa is the mom to amazing adolescent twins, both of whom are exceptional with language-based learning differences. Their schooling experiences has shaped her lifetime commitment to diversity and the neurodivergent learner, equity, inclusion and social justice.
When Elisa isn’t championing students and teacher team leadership, she is on stage acting, driving her twins to basketball and theater, or experimenting in the kitchen pretending she’s on the Food Network. Contact Elisa if you want to learn more about skillful intentional team leadership, or if you just want a delicious fudge recipe.
​
Elisa is the author of the new book Intentional Moves: How Skillful Team Leaders Impact Learning and the best-selling book, The Skillful Team Leader: A Resource for Overcoming Hurdles to Professional Learning for Student Achievement. (Click here for additional publications.)
Assistant Superintendent
Elisa is a terrifically talented and knowledgeable leader of professional development for teachers, teacher leaders, and school administrators. She is detail-oriented and highly skilled in structuring adult learning to engage educators and help them reflect upon and change their practice. Elisa is the most skilled professional developer that I have worked with in my 20+ educational career.
​
Toby R.
Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Ed & Special Programs
Newton Public Schools, MA
Teacher Leader
Your training has transformed how I think about problem solving in schools, whether it's math, team meetings or social and emotional learning. I am less intimidated when dealing with challenging issues and have a whole new perspective about how to operate in schools.
​
​
Georgia M.
Math teacher leader
F.A. Day Middle School, MA
​
Corporate Client
Elisa summarized "The Five dysfunctions of a Team" into meaningful and digestible content that allowed our team to understand the complexities of leadership within an organization. She also presented alternate viewpoints on leadership and challenged our team to think about how our own team functions. Elisa took the time to outline exercises and resources for our continued growth as a team. This was a truly valuable exercise to start our journey to being a better functioning leadership team.
Carrie M.
Manager Clinical Research Operations
Ambry Genetics, CA