Reilly brings over a decade of experience as a leader in Colorado's education policy landscape. Over the last 10+ years she has worked to develop and advance policy, guide political strategy, build and sustain philanthropic fundraising, support a statewide ballot measure campaign and build and sustain a powerful and thoughtful coalition of partners.
Reilly began her policy and political work with the Colorado Children’s Campaign. From 2009 to 2014, Reilly worked first as Government Affairs Director then as Vice President of Education Initiatives. Through those roles Reilly helped develop and pass over 25 pieces of legislation and served on the organization’s leadership team.
Reilly stepped away from Colorado in 2014 to pursue a master’s degree in Urban Education Policy from Brown University. The program explored a mix of qualitative and quantitative research and centered around a belief that policy and research must be co-created and co-designed with community.
After completing her graduate studies, Reilly came back to Colorado to lead Climb Higher Colorado. From 2015 to 2020, Reilly served as the President and CEO of Climb Higher, an education coalition focused on building trust and partnership across the educational ecosystem. In addition to the traditional duties of leading a nonprofit – building and supporting a Board of Directors, fundraising for the organization’s annual budget of $700,000, developing and advancing a strategic vision and managing a small but mighty staff, Reilly spent time building relationships with partners that work directly with students, families and educators. Reilly’s work helped to elevate the importance of family-school partnerships and launched their signature fellowship, the Systems Impact Institute.
In 2020, Reilly stepped down from her role leading Climb Higher after the birth of her daughter, Gwen. She then launched her consulting business, RPC Consulting. Reilly works with a range of partners and projects, primarily nonprofit organizations and foundations. She finds the greatest joy supporting coalition building and management, helping to advance policy, professional coaching, and providing organizational strategy support.
Reilly’s work is guided by a commitment to advancing a more equitable system of public education. She believes this requires partnerships with a mix of individuals and organizations. That work requires building trust and developing opportunities to listen to and learn from the people we aim to most deeply and positively impact as a result of the work.
Reilly served as a member on The Colorado Health Foundation's Policy Board from 2015-2020 and is a mentor through the Challenge Foundation. Reilly was born and raised in Colorado. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Kansas and a Master of Arts in Urban Education Policy from Brown University.
“Open systems (while I didn't always know that term) has inherently been a part of my thinking since I started with this work. I didn't practice it with intention until I started leading Climb Higher over five years ago. Collaboration, partnership, co-design and the idea that inclusivity breeds stronger work underpin how I operate. Open systems shows up in ever project I am working on. A few examples - I am helping an organization develop a co-designed policy process this summer as well as a school district in the development of family facing learning guides. Through that work I have made sure partners have a deep role in shaping the design and development of the learning guides. I know I am working hard to have open systems as a part of all my work but inevitably there are more opportunities for it to show up and this will be a space to explore just that.”