Elisa MacDonald
Skillful & Intentional Team Leadership
From the age of ten when I asked for a chalkboard for my birthday, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. That calling manifested into a career spanning three decades of teaching, leading and consulting.
I partner with districts, schools, and organizations to build leadership capacity that turns collaboration into meaningful improvements in teaching and learning. I also work with corporate clients, whose mission is one of service and positive impact, who are looking to improve as a
learning organization.
Bio
Elisa B. MacDonald (elisamacdonald@elismacdonald.com) is an internationally recognized consultant specializing in building the leadership capacity within districts and organizations to achieve long-lasting learning for students and adults.
Elisa leverages 30 years of combined experience in the public school and private sector as a consultant, leader, and teacher.
She is renowned for:
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Her original and widely acclaimed framework, "MacDonald's Team Function, Impact Matrix."
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Guiding leadership teams in strategic visioning for teaching and learning
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Delivering courses, workshops and keynotes to team leaders: teacher leaders, coaches, department chairs and the leaders who support them
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Facilitating powerful leadership team retreats to improve the function of their teams
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Coaching and mentoring district and school-level leaders to implement sustainable change
Recent accomplishments include:
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Elisa has been featured on Peter DeWitt and Mike Nelson's podcast "Leaders Coaching Leaders".
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Elisa has presented to audiences of 500+ people at numerous conferences and universities. Her 2025 presentation was showcased on the ISTE/ASCD website.
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Both of Elisa's bestselling books, Intentional Moves: How Skillful Team Leaders Impact Learning (2023), and The Skillful Team Leader, were selected by Learning Forward. Book Picks, an honor awarded to only four books a year.
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Elisa was instrumental in securing a $900,000 DESE grant for an underperforming school district.
Prior to consulting, Elisa worked as National Director of Teacher Leader Development at Teach Plus, where she led teams of teachers in chronically underperforming schools in six cities and achieve rapid gains for students. She began her career teaching and leading in the Boston Public Schools, receiving numerous grants and awards for her work.
Elisa has earned a BA in psychology and education from Brandeis University and MA in Critical and Creative Thinking from UMASS Boston. The author of two bestselling Corwin books, Elisa has also published numerous articles and blogs in esteemed education journals including one of the most popular articles published by Learning Forward, When Nice Won't Suffice, and has authored two-bestselling Corwin Books.
On the personal side:
Originally from New York City, Elisa lives in Arlington, MA and is the proud mom to amazing teenage twins. Their school experiences, in particular their challenges with language-based learning differences, have shaped Elisa's lifetime commitment to understanding all types of learners and ensuring every child has access to learning.
When Elisa isn’t championing teacher leaders and helping teams, she fills her creative bucket with acting, dance and 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.)
Follow her at:
In the News
Elisa MacDonald's work is referenced in numerous books such as:
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The PLC+ Playbook by Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey
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50 Strategies for Activating Your PLC+ by Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey and James Marshall.
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Focus on Teaching by Jim Knight.
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The Teacher Team Leader Handbook by Chad Dumas.
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Elisa MacDonald's work has been reviewed by many and is referenced in numerous publications. Here are a few standouts:
(May 21, 2026) Middleweb book review: "MOVES TO HELP TEAM LEADERS IMPACT LEARNING."
Middleweb magazine did a wonderful review of my bestselling book, Intentional Moves!
I love this line from the review: "From the beginning, this book felt authentic to me – like MacDonald was personally coaching me to become an effective team leader."
And this part of Durkin's book review captures why I wrote the book as I did:
"As I was transitioning from a colleague/teacher to a leader, I really appreciated the subsection in each of the chapters labeled “Think Like a Teacher.” MacDonald lays out how the move she’s describing mirrors what teachers are already doing in their classroom. I found this to be comforting because it showed me that I was already doing some of these skillful moves with my students, and how, with MacDonald’s support, I could translate those skills into my new leadership role."
This is EXACTLY why I include the "Think like a teacher" section for most leadership moves in the book.
I want new teacher leaders and coaches, in particular, to realize you already have the skills and expertise for leading colleagues in learning because you have excelled at leading students in learning in the classroom.
While some of the moves you make and how you make them with students might be different than when leading adults, your intentions are the same! Read the full review here.
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(May 1, 2026) Fig City News. "Beyond spreadsheets and budget books: Brown Middle School Principal discusses student results" By Adam Bernstein on June 24, 2025
*Elisa MacDonald partnered with Principal Kim Lysaght and her teacher leaders.
FCN: How do educator “Teams” work at Brown Middle School?
(Principal Kim Lysaght*) KL: This year, each team has a team leader, and utilizes what we call a Function Impact Matrix (attributed to Elisa McDonald), which looks at both the functionality of the team as well as its impact on student results. They ask questions like how would you facilitate a situation where X happens or Y happens. Since [Superintendent Nolin] began, we’ve implemented several student assessments such as Star Math. We’ve been using iReady for reading for a number of years. The teams also look at social-emotional learning (SEL) data. We have a platform that’s called Sown To Grow, where our students weekly will enter data on a five-point scale about how they’re feeling on Friday. Read full article here.
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(August 26, 2025) Learning Forward. Leading, Learning and Collaborating with Trish Hinze.
"K: What’s inspiring you to learn right now?
T: I’m excited to share the book Intentional Moves: How Skillful Team Leaders Impact Learning by Elisa MacDonald. Elisa’s focus is not only team functionality, which is absolutely important, but her work delves deeper to focus on impact. If we are going to expend the time and energy to work as collaborative teams, we need to ensure our work impacts learning, both adult and student learning. The book focuses on 10 Primary Intentions with correlating leader moves. The format of the book is a user-friendly, color-coded structure that guides teams to easy-to-use tools, and she provides recommendations for how and when to use these resources. It frames the work of a skillful team leader starting with building a collaborative team culture and then promotes other critical moves such as the intentional use of data. One of my favorite intentions is implementing new learning. MacDonald provides tools to help team leaders navigate how we learn and then implement changes in small, manageable increments over time and even addresses dealing with resistance to change and conflict that are inevitable when we work in teams. These are the areas where teams falter, without guidance and proven resources. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorites!" Read full article here
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(May 6, 2024) Leaders Coaching Leaders Podcast with Peter DeWitt. "How to Lead a Culture of Learning and Vulnerability." Click the image below to watch.
(Oct. 23, 2023) Center for Leadership and Educational Equity (CLEE). "What are we reading?" Written by: Jenny Li, CLEE Continuous Improvement Facilitator and Coach
"... I loved hearing Danira reflect on the intention because it really modeled the mindsets underlying Elisa MacDonald’s “When Nice Won’t Suffice.” We need more leaders who are willing to “foster vulnerability-based trust” in order to get the results we need for all students. Too often, educators lose out on “rigorous collaborative discourse” when we prioritize protecting people’s feelings of comfort over challenging our thinking, beliefs, assumptions, and practice. This can happen in so many ways but for our leaders to interrupt these patterns of “nice,” MacDonald calls on educator leaders to recognize the signs, respond proactively as well as in the moment, and follow up."... Read review here
(January 24, 2014) She Shines On. She gives. Teach Plus. (Review no longer on site.)
(July 24, 2013) Professional Learning: The Secrets of Skillful Team Leaders - (Part 1). Alabama Best Practices Center. Read article here.
(July 29, 2013) Avoiding a Scapegoat Culture in Your School (Part 2). Alabama Best Practices Center. Read article here.
(Nov. 29, 2013) Middleweb. "The Skillful Team Leader: Overcoming Hurdles to Professional Learning"Read article here.
(If you come across Elisa MacDonald's work in any publications, please let Elisa's team know HERE.)
Clients
Throughout Elisa's career, she has had the privilege to work with
the following districts and organizations:
International Clients:
Georgetown International Academy, Guyana (South America)
Manitoba Teachers’ Society (Canada)
Graded The American School of São Paulo (Brazil)
Clients Within the United States:
A+ College ReadyAlabama Best Practices Center, AL
Ambry Genetics, CA (Corporate Client)
Auburn Public Schools, MA
Boston Public Schools, MA
Clinton Public Schools, MA
District of Columbia Public Schools, DC
Fall River Public Schools, MA
Franklin Public Schools, MA
Foxborough Regional Charter School, MA
Hawaii PDERI, Honolulu, HI
Holliston Public Schools, MA
Indianapolis Public Schools, IN
Leominster Public Schools, MA
Lexington Public Schools, MA
Malden Public Schools, MA
Maynard Public Schools, MA
Massachusetts ASCD, (MASCD)
Massachusetts Secondary School Administrators' Association (MSSAA), MA
Millbury Public Schools, MA
Narraganset Public Schools, MA
New Bedford Public Schools, MA
Newton Public Schools, MA
North Attleboro Public Schools, MA
North Reading Public Schools, MA
Research for Better Teaching, MA
Scituate Public Schools, MA
Shady Hill Independent School, MA
Southwick-Tolland Public Schools, MA
Teach Plus, T3 Initiative MA
Tewksbury Public Schools, MA
Virginia Beach City Public Schools, VA
Webster Public Schools, MA
Yarmouth Public Schools, MA
In addition, school leaders from across the globe have taken Elisa's virtual courses. A partial list includes: Bismarck Middle School (AK); East Windsor Public Schools (CT); Mansfield Middle School (CT); Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, (IL); Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (LA); Cambridge Public Schools (MA); Chicopee Public Schools (MA); Integration Charter Schools (NY); Riverside Elementary School, Lakeview School District (MI); Wake County Public Schools (NC); Melrose-Mindoro School District (WI); Aldine Independent School District (TX); Learning Forward (TX); The Bishop Statan School (Canada).
