Vikki Lassiter

Senior executive with 15+ years leading institution-wide strategy and transformation inside complex, mission-driven organizations, including nine years as an executive director for a national research network based at the University of Pennsylvania. Partners directly with presidents, cabinets, boards, and faculty to turn high-level vision into practical roadmaps, sequence pilots, stand up lightweight governance, and keep cross-functional workstreams moving without adding bureaucracy. Deeply engaged with the strategic implications of AI for social impact and a daily practitioner of AI tools in strategy, research, and operations work.

Known for translating complexity into clear choices, decision memos, and measurable institutional value, and for building a culture of informed experimentation rather than fear or hype.

Founder & Principal | Fractional Chief of Staff and Strategy Advisor at Adtigo Group LLC (2016-01 – Present)

• Serve as executive leaders across higher education, healthcare, and philanthropy, running the operating cadence for 4+ concurrent multi-partner initiatives through decision logs, workstream owners, timelines, and progress updates that keep senior sponsors informed and initiatives on schedule.
• Advised executive leadership at a Drexel University research institute on an institution-wide transformation effort, defining decision rights, governance pathways, and workstream ownership and facilitating structured workshops that moved 20+ senior stakeholders from competing views to a single agreed set of change milestones.
• Prepare briefings and board-facing recommendations for philanthropic sponsors including the William Penn Foundation, New York Community Trust, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, translating ambiguous evidence into clear choices that shaped multi-million-dollar grantmaking and investment strategy.
• Redesigned the strategy and partnership infrastructure for a national research program at the Social Science Research Council, diversifying its funding base and giving leadership a sustainable operating model for long-term competitiveness.

Senior Consultant, Strategy & Enterprise Transformation at Gordon Policy Group LLC (2018-01 – 2026-01)

• Delivered 20% revenue growth in value-based contracting for a regional managed care organization by designing an enterprise integration model with clear workstream ownership and accountability structures, tracked through performance dashboards reviewed by the senior leadership team.
• Launched and governed a cross-functional pilot workgroup for a major health system serving high-risk patients, building the measurement framework and feasibility analysis that gave executives the evidence to make a go/no-go scaling decision, an approach directly transferable to sequencing AI pilots across enrollment, finance, HR, and student support.
• Strengthened coordination across Keystone First's partner network, using stakeholder data and AI-enabled analysis to accelerate synthesis of partner input, improve community resource delivery, and raise service responsiveness for members.

Executive Director, Council on Black Health at Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (2007-01 – 2016-01)

• Directed the operational and strategic execution of more than $8M in federal and foundation-funded initiatives within an R1 research university, developing cross-institutional workstreams across faculty, administrators, and external advisors and driving policy and practice change across the field.
• Led enterprise-wide transformation of a 75+ member national network, replacing ad hoc communication with shared operating infrastructure, governance rhythms, and a culture of organizational learning that produced sustained cross-institution collaboration and collective action within two years.
• Designed and launched a service center that raised contract revenue 150% and lifted administrative productivity by consolidating duplicated functions and realigning capacity against strategic priorities.
• Directed enterprise-wide budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting across programs and research portfolios, improving financial transparency and enabling strategic investment in higher-impact initiatives.

MS in Organizational Dynamics – University of Pennsylvania

Certificate in European Approaches to Organisational Development, Change, and Coaching – i-Coach Academy London

BS in Psychology – Pennsylvania State University