Amy Chan

Amy Chan is the Founder of Social Catalyst Consulting. She is an educator, facilitator, and strategic advisor who promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion in her practices. She has more than twenty years of experience working with educational institutions, nonprofits, government agencies, and businesses with social justice missions. She takes a collaborative, multi-sector, and interdisciplinary approach to advance civic engagement and community empowerment.

In her consulting capacity, Amy draws upon her leadership experience with several national organizations guiding them through their periods of change and innovation, including during start-up, strategic pivot, and expansion phases. She coaches staff and executive management teams to design, implement, and evaluate complex projects with various stakeholders through research, needs assessments, focus groups, training, targeted recruitment, marketing, communications, data collection, and analysis.

From 1999-2004, Amy served as the Senior Campus Director with the Boston-based national nonprofit, Citizen Schools, which partners with middle schools across the United States to expand the learning day for over 5,000 children in low-income communities through their innovative apprenticeship and experiential learning program model by recruiting volunteers in various industries as “Citizen Teachers.”

From 2005-2010, Amy served as the Director of Youth Programs at the Coro Center for Civic Leadership, where she oversaw student leadership development training in partnership with 12 Bay Area high schools. Coro received in 2010 the Organization Recognition Award from the San Francisco Human Rights Commission “for promoting and advancing education as a human right in the San Francisco Unified School District.” In the same year, Coro also received from the San Francisco Giants the State Farm Good Neighbor Award  “for outstanding commitment and service to students from East Bay and San Francisco communities.”

From 2011-2018, Amy served as Associate Dean of Students and Director of the University Community Service Center at the University of Chicago, founded in 1996 by Michelle Obama, who first served in that role from 1996-2001. Amy increased and diversified the center-wide portfolio from 5 to 13 programs, tripled the number of annual program participants from 1,000 to 3,000, and managed partnerships with over 250 organizations across the city. In 2017, Amy oversaw the inauguration of the Chicago Studies certificate program, in which undergraduates earn a transcript designation for completion of various civic engagement criteria, including coursework and a senior capstone project on a community-based issue.

Amy is a native Chicagoan and has also lived in Tokyo, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Carleton College and her Master of Education from Harvard University.