Select Client Stories
My work spans two decades of civic leadership and the leadership practice I've built from it. Below you'll find both: recent New Anthem client engagements with individuals and organizations, and the career work that informs everything I do.
New Anthem Client Work
A Composite Client Experience
Executive Leadership Coaching
They came into coaching knowing something needed to change, but not necessarily what.
They were successful, capable, and used to being the person who could figure things out. That had also meant taking on a lot: solving problems, stepping in when something wasn't working, worrying about disappointing people, and carrying responsibility that didn't always need to be theirs.
Our work gave them a place to sort through what was actually theirs to carry and, underneath all of that, a harder question: What do I actually want?
That question started changing real choices. What they said yes to. What they stopped rescuing. How they handled difficult conversations. How much room they gave other people to step up. And how they thought about what they wanted their next chapter to look like.
They left making choices more deliberately, with a much stronger sense of what was theirs to own and what wasn't.
Terraphase Engineering
Women+ Leadership Symposium on Succession Strategy
Terraphase was ready to invest in Women+ leadership advancement — and wanted to do it right. New Anthem designed a diagnostic process that surfaced what participants actually needed to move into senior roles, then built the strategic and intellectual framework that helped 26 participants move from shared diagnosis to a concrete succession vision — and a prioritized strategy for getting there.
CREDA Greater Philadelphia
Executive Coaching + Team Alignment
CREDA Greater Philadelphia’s growth in membership, visibility, and programming brought new questions about how the organization itself needed to grow and lead.
Our work began with one-on-one coaching for the Executive Director and expanded from there. A Board and leadership retreat helped the organization get clearer about roles, simplify its committee structure, and make some important decisions about how it wanted to work going forward.
The relationship has continued through ongoing advisory support as CREDA puts those decisions into practice and navigates what comes next.
Black Squirrel Economic Alliance RiSE R/E Accelerator
Strategy Design + Facilitation
Two cohorts of evidence and a growing list of cities asking to bring RiSE to them. New Anthem designed and facilitated a full-day retreat to turn both into decisions: a restructured Cohort 3 curriculum that sequences learning and doing as a single arc, clarity on what makes RiSE different from every other real estate training program, and an expansion vision grounded in non-negotiables rather than aspiration.
The result is a recommendations report that gives BSEA's staff, board, and partners a shared strategic foundation — for the cohort launching this fall and for the cities already asking what's next.
Live Work Philadelphia
Strategy Retreat: Priority-Setting
Live Work Philadelphia is shaping a generational strategy to grow and diversify the region’s middle-income population. I was brought in to design and facilitate the inaugural Board retreat that resulted in a shared set of strategic commitments, renewed Board clarity, and an actionable foundation for the initiative’s multi-year direction.
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Confidential Client
Strategy Design + Facilitation (In Progress)
A national nonprofit came to New Anthem with a big question: What should scaling actually mean for us?
Rather than assuming growth meant simply doing more in more places, we helped the organization explore other ways to think about scale, including influence, innovation, and expanding the reach of what already works.
That work is now moving across the organization, bringing leaders from different regions together to test those ideas against their own experience, wrestle with the tradeoffs, and shape what scaling could look like in practice.
The goal isn’t growth for growth’s sake. It’s getting clearer about what is worth scaling, why, and how to do it without losing what makes the work effective in the first place.
Impact Roots
Before New Anthem, I worked inside the very systems my clients are navigating — public agencies, private developers, community networks, and multi-year civic initiatives. This is the work that shaped my practice.
30th Street Station Redevelopment
From Vision to Delivery
A national landmark poised for transformation, Philadelphia 30th Street Station required a bold but achievable 35-year vision. Natalie led the strategic framework and multi-agency alignment across Amtrak, Drexel, Brandywine, PennDOT, and SEPTA to shape a $10B district plan. She then translated the vision into action—designing Amtrak’s first major public-private partnership, navigating federal and governance complexity, and setting new benchmarks for equity and MWBE participation. The effort delivered early wins, including Drexel Square and major transit upgrades, and became a national model for inclusive infrastructure delivery.
Image Credit: Amtrak/SOM
Image Credit: WHYY
Philadelphia Zoning Reform
Policy Redesign + Operational Infrastructure
Natalie was part of the core team leading the Philadelphia’s first zoning reform in over 50 years, transforming a complex policy overhaul into a credible, community-informed process with broad political and public support. She coordinated City Council, developers, civic associations, and advocacy groups, and designed messaging and engagement tools that made zoning accessible and engaging for the public. The resulting code anchors the city’s land use system today, and Natalie stood up its new structures in practice—including launching the Registered Community Organization network and operationalizing the Civic Design Review process.
Schuykill Yards | Discovery Point
Partner-Led Neighborhood Development
Brandywine needed leadership to guide large-scale, multi-phase innovation districts from master plan through execution. As Vice President of Development, Natalie oversaw Schuylkill Yards (Philadelphia, PA) and Discovery Point (College Park, MD), leading strategy, stakeholder alignment, and budget/schedule management from predevelopment through delivery.
Her work advanced transformative, long-term development alongside anchor institutions—prioritizing accessible public spaces, economic opportunity, and intentional, community-serving growth.
Image Credit: Halkin Mason Photography/Schuylkill Yards
Rebuild Philadelphia
Public Infrastructure Strategy
Rebuild was a $400M initiative to renovate parks, recreation centers, and libraries with equity at its core. As First Deputy Director, Natalie accelerated implementation by building the program’s operational backbone—developing its first multi-year capital plan, establishing communications and community engagement functions, and creating scalable outreach and reporting protocols. She also identified the need for additional capacity and advised on integrating an owner’s representative team to strengthen delivery.
Image Credit: City of Philadelphia
Urbane + Mangrove
Mission Alignment + Enterprise Infrastructure
As COO, Natalie led strategy, operations, and business development for Urbane’s dual-entity enterprise—its for-profit real estate arm and nonprofit affiliate, Mangrove. She guided the organization through a pivotal transition, unifying vision, storytelling, organizational structure, and financial strategy around a single mission: advancing shared ownership and community wealth in historically disinvested Black and Brown communities.
She also oversaw the rebranding and communications platform for Urbane’s flagship project, Flatbush Central, a cultural marketplace and entrepreneurship hub in Brooklyn, positioning the enterprise as a national leader in inclusive economic development.
Image Credit: Urbane