Close-up of a smiling woman with long brown hair, wearing clear glasses and a gray shirt, against a plain light background.

I find where structure is fighting the mission.

And I've been inside enough broken ones to know exactly what it costs.

Not theoretically. From the inside.

I've been the employee absorbing structural dysfunction while trying to do good work — in national nonprofits, philanthropic technology companies, enterprise SaaS, museum galleries, and K-8 classrooms. I've watched it play out in organizations managing 200+ concurrent programs across 70 staff. In a Fortune 500 VR platform where the obvious fix was more oversight and the actual fix was removing steps that existed purely out of habit — setup timelines dropped 40%. In cultural institutions where good educators couldn't get the support the mission was supposed to provide.

Different sectors. Different budgets. Different missions. Same structural pattern underneath.

What looks like a communication problem is usually a roles problem. What looks like a capacity problem is usually a resources problem. What looks like a leadership problem is usually a rules problem. Once you can see that, you can't unsee it.

I've been seeing it for nineteen years across five sectors. That's what I bring to this work — not a methodology borrowed from a business school textbook, but pattern recognition that comes from watching the same problem wear a hundred different costumes until you can spot it before it introduces itself.

Book a Conversaion

Why Work

With Me . . .

A person with red hair resting their head on a table covered with a patterned tablecloth, surrounded by books and glass pitchers of water.

You've probably

already tried

something.

A training. A team retreat. A new hire. A reorganization. Maybe a coach. Maybe a stern all-hands. Maybe you told yourself it was a culture problem and hoped it would sort itself out.

The instinct makes sense. When something isn't working, the natural response is to add — more people, more oversight, more process. But adding headcount to a structure problem doesn't fix the structure. It distributes the dysfunction more widely and makes it harder to see. Adding oversight to a visibility problem doesn't fix the visibility. It just makes the confusion more official.

The problem almost never lives where it looks like it lives.

Here's what I've found across nineteen years and more sectors than I can count on one hand: the problems that won't go away are almost never about the people. They're about the structure underneath the people — who owns what, how decisions get made, whether the resources actually match the work. When those three things are out of alignment, even your best people can't fix it. They can only absorb it.

That's the thing I see that most people miss — not because they're not smart, but because the structural problem is genuinely hard to see from inside it.

  • Before I recommend anything, I need to understand what's actually happening — not what it looks like from the outside, not what the org chart says. The diagnosis is the work. Everything else follows from it.

  • I'm not studying organizations from the outside. I've been the employee, the manager, the ops director, the person absorbing the dysfunction while trying to do good work. That inside experience is why I can walk into a broken system and help the people inside it tell the truth about what isn't working. I know what it costs. I know what changes when someone finally names it.

  • Nonprofits. Enterprise SaaS. Cultural institutions. Philanthropic technology. Classrooms. That cross-sector range is what lets me see the root cause faster — because I've watched it play out the same way enough times to recognize it on sight.

  • The Blueprint is built from conversations with the people doing the actual work — not just the people managing it. It names what's happening in language clear enough to read to your board. And it gives you a path forward you can act on, either independently or with me. My goal is to make myself unnecessary — but not before the structure is actually in place to hold things without me.

  • Not because for-profit companies don't have structural problems — they do — but because when a nonprofit can't deliver on its programs, or a cultural institution can't retain its educators, or a school can't support its teachers, the people who needed what that organization was supposed to provide don't get it. That's the problem I care about solving.

  • "She has a unique talent for finding alignment even in the most challenging situations, skillfully guiding discussions toward consensus and shared goals. Her presence on our team was instrumental in maintaining a positive and collaborative work environment."

    — Kari Moran, Program & Project Management Leader | direct manager, STRIVR

  • "I really never had to worry about misalignment or missed details when Marissa was on one of my projects. It's rare to find someone who's so great at both managing projects and building strong relationships."

    — Hala Keilany, Customer Success | cross-functional peer, STRIVR

  • "She's freed up my mental capacity to think about revenue-generating work. I now have a system and processes documented. She also is a great thought partner and asks clarifying questions that get to the heart of what you need to move forward."

    — Garland Fuller, Talent & Culture Consultant | consulting client

LET'S CHAT

I run a podcast called The Good Pod where my co-host and I recap The Good Wife universe — which, if you've watched it, is essentially nineteen seasons of structural dysfunction at a law firm. I watch TV the same way I watch organizations. Occupational hazard.

I'm based in the greater Chicago area. I work in my Hobonichi planner. I take this work seriously and don't take myself too seriously.

If that sounds like someone you want to think through a hard structural problem with — let's talk.

Book a Call!