Strategist. Mirror. Voice.
Lived experience translated into systems-level design.
In Action
Kimberly is a Nigerian woman - replete with Louisiana charm and an NYC-inspired sense of bravado. For an easy in, start a conversation about the songs you hum in the shower, the live theater that most impacted you, or the guilty-pleasure television you can't live without. Kimberly blends this good humor and humanity with 20+ years of leadership experience in education, nonprofits, and philanthropy.
An educator by training and a systems strategist by experience, Kimberly recently served as Vice President of Programs at Echoing Green, where she worked at the intersection of philanthropy and power—disrupting traditional funding models to accelerate the leadership of those long overlooked. She led global support for 1,000 social innovators across 80+ countries and stewarded programming for the organization’s largest-ever equity investment: the $75M+ Racial Equity Philanthropic Fund.
Under her leadership, Echoing Green channeled $20M+ in unrestricted capital to scale early-stage ventures, launched a global Ambassador model to deepen community influence, and catalyzed a ninefold increase in HBCU partnerships to surface untapped Black leadership.
She guided the strategic redesign of the organization’s flagship Fellowship, structuring peer mentorship, codifying leadership development, and centering organizational design—ensuring that brilliance was fully equipped to thrive.
Now, as Founder and Lead Strategist at KEO Advising, Kimberly brings that same lens to organizations ready to challenge the unspoken rules about who gets to lead. She partners with executives to reimagine the structures that shape opportunity, disrupt the habits that preserve inequity, and design leadership cultures that distribute power and unlock potential. Through consulting engagements, fractional leadership roles, and select full-time opportunities, she continues to turn equity from promise to practice.
First steps
Kimberly started her career teaching middle school English and Social Studies in Harlem before becoming a Founding Reading Department Lead at Democracy Prep Charter High School. She quickly rose to lead teacher—elevated as a model classroom for superintendent reviews, coaching resident teachers through a City College partnership, and launching an independent reading program that boosted comprehension by two grade levels within a year.
To expand her impact, she joined the founding team and served as Founding Associate Dean at Relay Graduate School of Education, the first new graduate school of education launched in New York City in over 80 years. There, she launched and tripled Relay’s partnership with NYC Teaching Fellows, trained over 650 novice teachers across district and charter settings, and designed high-impact hybrid professional learning on general pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching for educators nationwide.
Kimberly shared her pedagogical expertise on national and international stages, including Harvard's Alumni of Color Conference, Teach for America's National Conference, South Africa's Lebone College, and Oprah Winfrey's Leadership Academy for Girls.
Breadth work
DOCTORAL IMPACT
To deepen her content expertise, Kimberly pursued a doctorate full-time while consulting across education and nonprofit leadership. As Lead K–12 Equity Consultant for both Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Business School’s Public Education Leadership Project, she advised districts on scaling culturally relevant behavior-management systems, trained faculty on navigating racial tensions in graduate-level classrooms, designed equitable performance management structures, and crafted inclusive messaging strategies for an expanding startup client.
Between coursework and consulting, Kimberly traveled to Lebanon to explore how the Syrian refugee crisis shaped local education systems. In her doctoral capstone year, she lent her equity lens to the Walton Family Foundation's K–12 Education team—one of the largest education funders in the U.S.—as Program Officer in Residence. There, she proposed grants supporting leaders of color and intentionally diverse schools, and advised senior leadership on designing more inclusive internal talent strategies.
SYSTEMS-LEVEL LEADERSHIP
Newly-minted Dr. Osagie then joined Curriculum Associates as Vice President of Educator Success, leading both internal and external equity initiatives. She partnered with the People Operations team to create the company’s first-ever inclusion strategy for its 800+ employees, while overseeing professional learning programs supporting educator teams in 11,000+ school systems nationwide.
Kimberly later brought her expertise to Promise54, a national talent consultancy for mission-driven organizations. As Partner, she managed a $1M client portfolio, advised 100+ senior executives on inclusive leadership and navigating organizational uncertainty, and co-authored DEI in Action: A Radically Human Approach to Case Studies. Kimberly also led the strategy, design, and implementation of an annual DEI Accelerator, guiding 40+ organizations through transformational equity initiatives.
Honored
Kimberly holds a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Harvard; a Master's in Teaching Secondary English from Pace University; and undergraduate degrees in English and Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia as a Jefferson, Echols, and Honorary Holland Scholar.
A celebrated leader and equity strategist, Kimberly earned recognition as a Pahara Fellow for her education leadership (2014), a Derek Bok Center for Teaching Excellence Award at Harvard (2017), an Equity Lab Seeding Disruption fellowship for her interest in place-based approaches to disrupting inequity (2020), and a Black Fox Fellow for her equity-driven philanthropy leadership (2022 & 2023).
After a decade in New York City, Kimberly currently lives in Washington, DC with a pandemic-inspired collection of houseplants and an unwavering commitment to what principled leadership makes possible beyond the boardroom.