Let's work together.

Through First Quarter Strategies LLC, I can help your organization, community, network, or initiative prioritize youth thriving, so every kid can build a life and future they love.

Are you a state or community leader?

I help start and staff statewide partnerships, and community collaboratives focused on child and youth well-being and thriving. Together, we can work together to develop and drive an issue campaign, build an action agenda, start or run a coalition, or plan your next strategy. I can support your team with initial design, technical assistance, or ongoing facilitation. To see what this can look like, read this piece on my work with partners in Virginia or explore this Virginia education network.

Are you a funder. NETWORK OR NATIONAL NONPROFIT?

I co-design and advise on strategy for networks (e.g., Connecting Credentials), funder groups (e.g., YTFG workgroup), learning communities (e.g., JFF Leadership Academy), and cohort experiences (e.g., Students at the Center Distinguished Fellows). We can partner on special projects, field research, publications, tools, or resources. For examples, check out this report on youth readiness, funded by the Ford Foundation; this brief on competency-based education and equity, funded by Lumina Foundation; this ecosystem map of competency-based education in higher education, funded by the Gates Foundation; and this economic well-being investment framework, written for YTFG.

Are you a district or school leader?

I am an educator with a background in pedagogy and school design. I taught elementary school, coached middle school sports, and led an education nonprofit that ran a high school for older youth (Shearwater) on a technical college campus. I can help imagine and design alternative and student-centered learning models (e.g., EPIC Schools in NYC), and work with your team to prioritize and pursue student wellbeing from classroom to board room. We can strategize and plan for how to implement the 10 whole life practices from my book Whole Child, Whole Life, or engage with your families and community to develop a portrait of a thriving youth.

Are you An industry or Credentialing leader?

While my work started with youth, I spent a decade partnering with industry, corporate, and credentialing leaders to serve and support young adult workers who are most vulnerable. I can work with you to research and design ways to prepare for and support these workers. This can include customized research, interviews, workshops, and resource creation. Through my work at JFF, I co-led these types of efforts with several groups, including Hilton Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Are you another kind of leader?

Do you want to work together but don't fit into the groups above? No problem. Reach out! I want to hear from you and talk about what we can do together. If you are a news or media outlet and want to do an interview or use me as a source for a story, send me an email at info@stephaniemaliakrauss.com with details and your deadline.

RECENT projects + Partnerships

Staff Consultant for the Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG). This funder network focuses on investments that support the wellbeing and well-becoming of vulnerable young people ages 14-25 in the US. This work includes providing direct and collective support to funder members, delivering a learning agenda, and planning events.
Strategy Support for the Science of Learning and Development (SoLD) Alliance. This project with the SoLD Alliance supports a national vanguard of education and youth development leaders as they work to transform the places where children learn to be aligned with the science of learning and development, and designed for equity. Through a strategy step-back process, we are considering the full range of activities SoLD can do given the level of change underway and an emergent and rapidly changing future.
Backbone Facilitation for a Multi-Funder Initiative Focused on Special Student Populations. This multi-funder collaborative was co-facilitated by Maddy Day LLC and Associates. It focused on US field and funder knowledge- and base-building, research collaboration, and federal policy that supports the educational success of students who experience homelessness, foster care, and/or the criminal justice system.
State Strategy for Bringing Education + Youth Development Leadership Together. This project brought together Virginia education and youth development leaders to establish the Commonwealth Alliance for Thriving Youth and a Virginia Portrait of Thriving Youth.
Senior Fellow and Advisor on Older Youth, Youth Mental Health, and Positive Youth Development. I advise and assist Education Northwest, Children's Funding Project, and the CERES Institute for Children & Youth in their efforts focused on child and youth development, well-being and mental health, opportunity youth, and alternative education.