Mary Grace brings a unique blend of entrepreneurial drive, corporate strategy, and deep mission-alignment to her work with Catholic schools. Mary Grace is a proud product of Catholic education. She attended an all-girls Catholic school from kindergarten through twelfth grade (Sacred Heart Greenwich) and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor’s in the Program of Liberal Studies and a minor in International Peace Studies.
As a Partner at Partners in Mission, she specializes in school strategy, particularly in turnaround contexts, as well as enrollment development, leadership development and management, and crisis response. Her approach is rooted in a belief that building sustainable, enduring schools is about more than short-term results. It’s about creating long-lasting institutions that serve communities for generations.
Mary Grace currently also serves as Vice President of School Success at Guidepost Global Education, where she leads large-scale, cross-functional initiatives across a network of over 100 schools worldwide. Her leadership has yielded transformative outcomes: increasing profitable schools by 15% in one quarter, generating $7M in cost savings, enrolling over 1,000 new students in two months, and dramatically improving staffing efficiency and training engagement.
Earlier in her career, Mary Grace spent two years at McKinsey & Company as a Business Analyst. Her client work included a Top 150 university, where she identified $75M in opportunities across enrollment, retention, and operations to help achieve a balanced budget within five years. Her foundation in strategic consulting and operations is complemented by her early entrepreneurial journey: at the age of 12, she launched a hair accessory business and 501(c)(3) organization, Reverse The Course. Over nine years, she raised over $500K through product sales and fundraising to provide education for more than 120 high-risk girls in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Today, she works alongside school leaders, boards, and communities to build resilient schools that serve children through deeply held mission and values empowered by strong operational models.
Mary Grace resides in Chicago, IL with her husband Matthew and enjoys reading and walks along the lake in her free time.
