Great executive search is not only about filling the role in front of you. It is about understanding the leadership capacity an organization will need over time. Sally's trajectory at Alliance is exactly the kind of outcome we hope for. We helped bring in a leader whose expertise, values, and lived experience were deeply aligned to the mission, and her impact continued to grow as the organization entrusted her with broader responsibility for college access, readiness, and equity.
Alliance hired a Director of School Counseling in 2019. Six years later, that leader oversees college access and success for 13,000 scholars across 26 schools in Los Angeles.
In 2019, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools was building a new division from scratch: dedicated college access and success programming for scholars in grades 8-12 across a 12,000-student network. The hiring of the Director of School Counseling was the cornerstone of that build.
Alliance needed someone who could design and launch systems that didn't yet exist, earn trust across multiple school sites, and bring genuine personal connection to the first-generation college-going students they were built to serve. That profile, technical expert, organizational builder, and mission-aligned leader, required more than a job posting.
Actively recruited Sally Vo from her previous employer; she wasn't looking. A Los Angeles native, LAUSD graduate, and first-generation college graduate, Sally brought the professional depth and personal alignment Alliance needed to launch a program that would actually resonate with scholars.
Designed the search around two criteria in tandem: technical expertise in school counseling and college access, and lived experience as a first-generation college-going student, treating both as non-negotiable, not as trade-offs.
Grounded the hiring decision in evidence: a performance task and multiple structured interviews, including scenario-based roleplays, that revealed how Sally thinks, builds, and leads, not just how she presents.
Stronger Consulting partners with mission-driven organizations to turn complex challenges into clear, practical action, from strategy through implementation.
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