Kristen McCormack

Kristen J. McCormack is Associate Chair and Master Lecturer in the Management and Organizations Department at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University where she enjoys engaging graduate, undergraduate and executive learners in the complexities and joys of leading mission driven organizations. Ms. McCormack also serves as the Faculty Director of the Boston University Nonprofit Management and Leadership Certificate Program, a mid-career executive program for nonprofit leaders and is a collaborating faculty member in the Boston University/EdX Micromasters Program in Digital Leadership.

Courses taught include: Managing Organizations and Individuals, Managing Organizational Change, Leading in a Digital Economy, Management Consulting, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, Creating Value in a Global Economy, the Latin America Field Seminar, Global Sustainability, Building Sustainable Food Systems, Social Entrepreneurship and Strategic Philanthropy and Fundraising.

Ms. McCormack has more than twenty-five years of experience leading and managing organizations in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. She began her career in the nonprofit sector as the Founding Executive Director of the Boston Food Bank, where she worked collaboratively with the food industry, farmers and government to address the issue of hunger in urban environments. Ms. McCormack served in Boston city government for nearly a decade as Director of the Mayor's Office of Jobs and Community Services, Deputy Budget Director and Deputy Director of the City’s Redevelopment Authority where she facilitated many of the city’s partnerships with civic organizations, trade unions, nonprofit organizations and business to create policy and programs focused on improving jobs, economic development and education. Returning to her neighborhood roots, McCormack led the financial and programmatic turnaround of one of Boston’s largest multi-service organizations initiating award winning programming. Frustrated by the slow progress of education reform in Boston, she founded one of the first public charter schools in Massachusetts, the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester, a high performing K-8 public charter school serving 400 Boston students and their families.

Ms. McCormack is an advisor, mentor, board member and volunteer to dozens of non-profit organizations and their leaders in and around Boston. She currently serves as a Trustee of the Charles Hayden Foundation and the William and Bertha Schrafft Charitable Trust.

She is the co-author of Profiting from Purpose: Profiles of Success and Challenge in Eight Social Purpose Businesses.

Ms. McCormack holds an MBA with a concentration in Public and Nonprofit Management from Boston University and an undergraduate degree in Community Planning with a concentration in Tax Theory from the University of Massachusetts. She is a long time resident of the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston where she resides with her family. Her current passions include leading in a digital economy, organizational change and viticulture.

EDUCATION

MBA, Boston University, 1991 BA, University of Massachusetts, 1982