Amy Chan is the founder and principal of Social Catalyst Consulting. She is an educator, facilitator, strategist, and cross-sector leader whose work spans higher education, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, and community engagement. For more than twenty years, she has helped organizations strengthen leadership, build partnerships, engage diverse stakeholders, and navigate periods of growth, change, and innovation.
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Amy will grow your organization with the right mix of strategy, leadership development, and execution. She is a natural facilitator and coach, but her secret sauce is distilling complex, abstract visions and missions into actionable plans with truly SMART goals and accountability. If you are lucky enough to work with Amy, you will focus on what matters most, and build a company that will have the foundation and infrastructure to last long after you are gone.
Co-Founder & Partner
ESO Ventures
Amy provided vital assistance to the Haas Center’s strategic and long-range planning process. With her vast network and deep understanding of the field, she was able to accomplish more in a single month than I would have expected others to do in five times that amount of time. She exceeded our expectations. I would recommend Social Catalyst Consulting to any college or university interested in exploring how to deepen their practice of community engagement.
Associate Vice Provost & Executive Director Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford University
Amy is easily one of the most effective, efficient, and joyful consultants I have ever worked with. For our new STEM initiative at twelve Massachusetts public middle schools, she overdelivered on an ambitious set of recruitment targets in a short turn-around. She signed up over 100 engineers, software developers, and computer scientists to be volunteer teachers and mentors. She developed and implemented thoughtful strategies and processes for sustainable growth. I would recommend her services to anyone lucky enough to have her on their team!
Vice President of Strategy
& New Business Development Citizen Schools
Working with Amy has been a fun and effective experience. She distilled our community engagement project into a smart, simple, yet poignant vision and business plan. Her instincts are spot on, and she facilitates them in a beautiful, helpful way. She supported our center to win a community economic development grant from the City of Chicago. There were over 6,000 submissions, and we were one of 66 recipients. I’ll be forever grateful for Amy’s knowledge and guidance.
Founder & Executive Director
Chicago Center for Photojournalism
Amy brought enthusiasm and energy to our strategic planning process. She demonstrated her investment in our success as an organization before, during, and after her engagement with us. I found Amy to be generous and creative, as well as skilled at engaging a broad group of constituents to contribute to a path forward.
Vice President for Community Engagement
& Executive Director
Swearer Center for Public Service, Brown University
Amy is one of the most talented and effective group facilitators I have ever worked with. It’s obvious that she has years of experience designing and delivering dynamic, transformative trainings for groups from many different backgrounds, ages, and industries. She has the unique ability to not only provide new insight for her clients, but to engage and inspire her groups to continue their learning and growth long after her trainings. Amy is also an absolute blast to work with!
Chief Operations & Growth Officer
Global Glimpse
Amy has a unique ability to bring people and institutions together. Amy’s ability to lead and expertly facilitate thoughtful and productive conversations has yielded tangible results that are demonstrated in the strong and lasting community partnerships she has helped create.
Executive Director
Hope Works Community Development
Amy is a leader who excels at managing the very issues that cause gridlock and fatigue in institutions: complex projects with multiple stakeholders and varying politics. Amy supported me to grow and build partnerships and projects that connected my passions for social change with the city of Chicago. Amy is someone who I consider an advisor and incredible former employer. It was a refreshing challenge to work side-by-side with her for several years at one of the top universities in the world.
Chief Executive Officer
Justice Informed
In my 10 years in the education field across two different continents, I have never worked with such an incredible leader. Amy’s calm but relentless disposition pushed our students to truly reflect and lead to unprecedented growth. Even as a fellow educator, I learned so much from Amy about myself and my craft. Her work is truly inspirational and life-changing.
Dean of Students
Pritzker College Prep, Noble Network of Charter Schools
Amy has an uncanny ability to combine social change theory and real-world practice in truly compelling ways. For five years at the University of Chicago, I saw first-hand how Amy inspired legions of students, created innovative programs, and transformed relationships with community stakeholders. Best of all, she did it with integrity, smarts, enthusiasm and a warm, infectious spirit.
Vice President, Chief Content Officer
WBEZ, Chicago Public Media
