Elizabeth Summers went into consulting straight out of undergrad, joining the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Chicago. She liked the work and the range of problems she tackled, though the rhythm meant she rarely stayed anywhere for long.
“You tend to work on a project for three weeks up to six months, and then you jump to something totally different,” she said. “So you don’t necessarily see the results of your work.”
What she wanted was a chance to stay with one organization and one mission long enough to see her work take hold; BCG gave her the opportunity. In August 2023, Elizabeth came to The Fund on loan from the firm, serving as chief of staff in a temporary arrangement. Elizabeth spent six months away before returning to consulting.
The education piece took hold almost immediately. Early in her six months, the team took her to a Chicago public school, and while she no longer remembers the details, she remembers clearly what she saw.
“There’s something really cool about watching either a teacher or a school leader just in their element,” she said. “They have a really great presence about them, and it’s really inspiring to see. Especially when we heard the principal speak.”
Elizabeth Summers, consultant at the Boston Consulting Group
Based on her time at The Fund, Elizabeth now describes a lifelong appreciation for everything that happens behind the scenes in education. She means it in both directions, for the adults standing in front of students and for the far less visible work of funding, measuring, and sustaining the conditions that let them do it.
She left on schedule in February 2024, but what she took with her had no expiration date.
It first surfaced at the University of Pennsylvania, where she spent the next two years earning her MBA. Business school runs on case discussion, and students are constantly asked to draw on their own experience; in a program full of former consultants, Elizabeth was struck by how often her classmates wanted to hear about her experience at The Fund.
“People really valued hearing what my experience was like, both from an education lens and from a philanthropy or social impact lens,” she said. “As it was for me before I left consulting, it’s a pretty foreign world. It was cool to demystify that.”
For two years, a room full of future consultants and investors learned what a philanthropic organization in Chicago actually does and why that work matters, and most importantly, they learned it from someone who understood what it meant to visit a CPS school and watch a principal hold a room.
Elizabeth kept that appreciation active outside the classroom as well, volunteering with high school students in Philadelphia and drawing on what she had learned at The Fund about the systems behind the services.
“I had a better idea of what was going on, what was funding the programming, what resources were available to the students,” she said.
As of September 2026, Elizabeth lives and works in Stockholm, where she has transferred with BCG for a year. Her firm runs an education practice whose consultants work with school systems, government bodies, and ed tech companies.
Wherever the work takes her after that, Elizabeth will be a Fund alum for the rest of her career. She keeps up with education news nationally and in whatever city she is living in, and what she learned in Chicago goes with her.
“I miss everybody at The Fund,” Elizabeth said. “Really great, inspiring people with a whole lot of ability and determination. It’s a challenging space, and their work is needed more than ever.”
One school visit was enough to show Elizabeth what that work looks like up close. Every October, The Fund invites all of Chicago to see it the same way and to celebrate the school leaders who push this work forward.
This year, we are making it easier to join in. A toolkit with social media language, event details, and other ways to celebrate and support school leaders is available here.
Wherever you are, whether in Chicago or, like Elizabeth, a long way from it, there is a way to take part.