Mary Grace Eapen helped to establish more than 20 charter schools in New York City, New York State and New Orleans. Her work also resulted in the successful charter renewal of over 10 charter schools in New York and New Jersey, the raising of almost $10 million in public and private sector grants for nonprofit organizations and charter schools, and the development of an educational leadership training program for aspiring inner-city Catholic grammar school leaders.
A graduate of Yale University with a degree in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Economics, Mary Grace began her career in corporate and public finance at Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York (now JP Morgan Chase). An opportunity to spend six months at the Bank’s Charitable Trust Fund provided her with a window into the nonprofit world as she worked with senior Program Officers in evaluating grant requests from local, national and international nonprofit organizations in the areas of healthcare, education, international aid and arts and culture. Moved by the work of the charitable organizations that the Bank was funding, she left Wall Street and focused her career in the education nonprofit sector where she spent almost 20 years leading highly regarded nonprofit organizations and founding successful programs of her own, including a charter school in the Bronx. As Executive Director of these organizations, Mary Grace had responsibility for successfully overseeing their overall program and fiscal management, and she built a solid reputation as a highly prolific fundraiser within the private philanthropic community.
For the last almost fifteen years, Mary Grace has brought to bear the depth and breadth of the skills, experience and relationships gained from her leadership of nonprofit organizations to the clients of her independent consulting firm, TIER Consulting Services LLC. Nonprofit organizations, charter schools and charter management organizations seek her expertise in such areas as fundraising including writing private and public (federal, state and local) grant applications, program development and evaluation, charter school development including writing charter applications and charter school renewal applications, board development and training and strategic planning. As a consultant, Mary Grace continues to positively impact some of the most underserved in society through her work with the myriad of charter schools and nonprofit organizations who seek her advice and support to strengthen them in carrying out their important missions.