our team
Jerry Hauser – Chief Executive Officer
Jerry brings to The Management Center his dual passions for promoting social change and creating high-performing organizations. His previous roles include serving as the President and CEO of the Advocacy Institute and as the Chief Operating Officer at Teach For America, where he helped the national nonprofit grow from $8 million to $38 million in annual revenue and from 3,000 to 17,000 applicants each year. Jerry also learned about creating strong organizations while an associate at the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company in Washington, DC. He began his career as a high school math and history teacher through Teach For America in Compton, California, and he holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Duke University. Jerry has written and spoken extensively on nonprofit management and leadership; his article on “Organizational Lessons for Non-Profits” appeared in The McKinsey Quarterly in 2003 and more recently he co-authored the book Managing to Change the World. Most importantly, Jerry is the proud father of future soccer stars Alex and Theo.
Monique Ayotte-Hoeltzel – Partner
Monique is passionate about the intersection of leadership and social change. Her career began as a Teach For America (TFA) corps member in the Mississippi Delta, where she taught high school English and received the Lee County Legacy Fund's Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award. Later, she joined the staff of TFA, where she served in leadership roles including vice president, admissions and executive vice president, alumni affairs. She was the chief architect of TFA's corps member selection model, and she was a member of the first leadership team of Teach For All, where she helped to develop that organization's first set of goals. As a member of TFA's senior leadership team, she helped make strategy, capacity, and culture decisions impacting more than 1,000 staff members. A teacher at heart, Monique enjoys coaching and developing others, especially around managing teams to achieve maximum impact. She is the proud mother of Cassius, who has recently begun to exert his leadership and test his mother's coaching skills. She lives with her husband and son in Brooklyn, New York.
Sam Bell – Vice President
Sam was a member of the team that founded Genocide Intervention Network, a human rights advocacy organization. As the organization's first executive director, Sam increased the organization's staff and programs, while turning an inherited budget deficit into a sizable surplus. He also oversaw the campaign to pass Sudan divestment legislation in 19 states, and led a successful effort to craft and pass the federal Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act, which is now law. In 2010, he initiated negotiations that resulted in a merger with the Save Darfur Coalition, and he served as the executive director of the resulting organization, United to End Genocide. Sam has appeared on and been covered by various media outlets, including CNBC, Al Jazeera, and The New Republic. He received his undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College, where he studied political science and philosophy. When he's not at The Management Center, you can find Sam on the basketball courts of Washington, D.C.
Emily Berens – Vice President
Emily is passionate about social change nationally and internationally, and about helping organizations and individuals to have the biggest impact possible. At Commongood Careers, Emily managed senior-level searches for a diverse portfolio of nonprofit clients, spanning the education, healthcare, and philanthropy sectors. As co-founder and director of Fundación En Vía, a microfinance and responsible tourism nonprofit in Mexico, Emily built an organization from start-up to a program that provides more than 200 women in three communities with interest-free micro-loans and training to start or grow their businesses. Previously, she spent eight years at the Fund for the Public Interest, where she hired, trained, and managed hundreds of organizers working on environmental and human rights issues, and managed recruitment nationally, and worked on national and international campaigns for Corporate Accountability International. She holds a degree in French and International Relations from Ohio State University.
Elizabeth Hampton Brown – Partner, Training Services
Elizabeth has a passion for social and political justice and brings a commitment to working to make progressive organizations perform at their best. Most recently, Elizabeth worked at Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) National as a field organizer and then as the Director of Policy and Programs. At PFLAG, she co-wrote The Guide to Being a Straight Ally and helped design and execute corporate diversity trainings that engage straight allies in the workplace for LGBT rights. She has trained for clients as diverse as the CIA, Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, and numerous non-profit organizations. Prior to her work at PFLAG, Elizabeth was a Henry Luce Scholar working for an indigenous rights organization in Thailand, where she developed women's capacity-building trainings, and worked as a investigator in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Elizabeth holds a B.A. in Political Science from Vassar College.
Iimay Ho – Director of Operations and Finance
Iimay is an advocate and organizer who is deeply committed to social justice. She’s also passionate about creating effective and efficient systems and is excited about her role in helping TMC move to the next level of performance. Iimay worked on the Power Shift 2011 conference, where as the Deputy Programming Director she helped ensure that all programs for the thousands of youth mobilizing around climate change ran smoothly. Prior to Power Shift, Iimay was Program Manager for Student Leadership Development with the Organization of Chinese Americans, where she managed a mentorship program and coordinated OCA’s internship, leadership development, and scholarship program. She has also worked at Southerners on New Ground (SONG), a Southern LGBTQ grassroots organization, and at the Asian American Justice Center. Iimay was a Fall 2009 New Leaders Fellow at the Center for Progressive Leadership and holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina.
Isabelle Moses - Partner and Chief of Staff
Isabelle is passionate about helping social change leaders achieve their goals. Before joining TMC, she managed Community Wealth Ventures' eight-person coaching practice, which served 25 nonprofit executives annually, and led consulting engagements for nonprofits and foundations. Isabelle also brings experience in the corporate and federal government sectors from prior management consulting roles with Accenture and Eagle Hill Consulting. She started her career with the Calvert Foundation, managing investor communications for the community investment loan portfolio, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, working as a small business development advisor. Isabelle holds both an MBA and an undergraduate degree in culture and politics from Georgetown University. On the weekends, you’ll find her running around on one of D.C.’s many soccer fields, actively defending against oncoming strikers.
Joyce Yin - Operations and Training Assistant
An organizer at heart, Joyce cares deeply about social justice work and building systems and infrastructures that allow progressive organizations to efficiently accomplish their work. Most recently, Joyce was a program associate at the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, where she provided programmatic support for the Immigrant Rights Project, coordinated national youth organizing, and helped manage communications and new media work. Joyce also served as a public ally for two years in Chicago under Americorps, coordinating after-school programs at the University of Chicago – Donoghue Campus charter school and managing a volunteer program across five local sites at Christopher House, a social service organization that serves low-income children and families on Chicago's north and west sides. Joyce holds a degree in Gender & Women's Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a Fall 2012 New Leaders Fellow with the Center for Progressive Leadership.
in residence
In addition to lending us their talents, our “in residence” team members also have professional lives outside of The Management Center.
Linda Bush
Linda founded and led the LGBT Movement Advancement Project (MAP), an independent think tank that provides rigorous research, insight, and analysis to help speed equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Previously, she was a startup company CEO, a senior manager at McKinsey & Company, and a U.S. Navy officer. From 1998 to 2002, Linda founded and grew the technology startup SafeRent, Inc. from $0 to $12 million annual revenue. SafeRent gained recognition from Forbes (Best of the Web 2001 and 2002), Inc (Killer App 2002), and The Wall Street Journal (Under the Radar, 2001). Since selling SafeRent in 2003, Linda has concentrated on strategic and operational consulting to nonprofit organizations, foundations, and individual philanthropists. Linda has a B.S. in Economics with Highest Distinction from Penn State and an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia. She is a certified Project Management Professional.
Alison Green
The co-author of Managing to Change the World, Alison also writes the popular Ask a Manager website, where she dispenses advice on career, job search, and management issues, and she writes a weekly column on career and management issues for U.S. News & World Report’s website. As the chief of staff of the Marijuana Policy Project, Alison oversaw day-to-day staff management. Before joining MPP, Alison worked in communications for several nonprofit organizations, including six years as a staff writer and campaign coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), where she made headlines for an effort that resulted in Procter & Gamble placing a moratorium on animal testing, taught students how to work with the media and organize on campuses, and authored a guide to campus activism. Her writings have been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and more than 250 other publications.
Amy Huffman
Amy’s experience in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors has given her an appreciation of how strong management skills are fundamental to achieving great results. The Management Center's former VP of Training, Amy also served as Vice President of Communications at Teach For America, where she grew media coverage by 127% during her tenure. Prior to that role, Amy served as the head of learning and development for Teach For America’s campus recruitment team as applications grew 36%. Charged with leading training efforts for the 170-person team, she overhauled the curriculum and introduced intensive week-long simulations to help new recruiters move rapidly up the learning curve. Prior to Teach For America, Amy worked at ABC News, where she helped launch multiple digital media initiatives, and at The Walt Disney Company, in their strategic planning group. She holds an M.B.A from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in economics from Harvard University.
founder
Peter B. Lewis
Peter B. Lewis is the non-executive Chairman of Progressive Corporation, having served as its CEO from 1965 to 2000. As CEO, Mr. Lewis grew Progressive from a small, specialized insurance company with $6 million in revenues and 100 employees into the nation’s fourth largest auto insurer, with 27,000 employees and annual sales of $15 billion. Through his philanthropy, Lewis invests in people with purposes he shares and the management ability to achieve those purposes. Lewis serves on the Board of his alma mater, Princeton University and is its largest-ever contributor. Lewis believes deeply in the value of individual freedom and tries to foster necessary governmental and social change. He supports the American Civil Liberties Union and helped finance the beginnings of The Management Center, America Coming Together, MoveOn.org, Media Matters and the Center for American Progress. Lewis is amicably divorced from Toby Devan Lewis and is the father of three and grandfather of four.