Kristen Godard, MP (Master of Planning), is the Director of Operations and a Senior Associate for La Piana Associates, based in the Los Angeles area. Kristen has strong project management and analytical skills, and applies these to her consulting work in organizational assessment, strategic planning, strategic restructuring, and market and survey research. With experience in many sub-sectors, Kristen has deep expertise working with funders and nonprofits involved in environmental advocacy and land conservation.

Kristen was project manager for La Piana’s Strategic Solutions Project, a foundation-funded initiative aimed at increasing the sector’s awareness of the potential value of strategic restructuring, such as mergers and administrative consolidations. She conducted research and wrote case studies on various forms of partnership; developed and presented trainings for nonprofits, funders, and consultants; and co-authored The Nonprofit Mergers Workbook, Part II: Unifying the Organization after a Merger.

Drawing on her experience in assessment and capacity-building, Kristen co-authored The Due Diligence Tool: for use in pre-grant assessment (2004) and Tool for Assessing Startup Organizations: a due diligence supplement for grantmakers (2003), both published by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO).

Previously, Kristen was Director of Silicon Valley Training Programs at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services—the nation’s largest management support organization—where she developed technical assistance programs focused on organizational effectiveness and technology. As a Program Officer at the W. Alton Jones Foundation, Kristen managed a nationwide grassroots environmental grantmaking portfolio, and before this, worked at several nonprofit and governmental agencies involved in conservation.

She volunteers as the Grants Director for the Mockingbird Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports music education for children, and previously served on the national board of Alliance for Healthy Homes.

Kristen has a Master of Planning degree with a concentration in land use and environmental policy, and a Bachelors of Science in Systems Engineering, both from the University of Virginia.  She is married to her college sweetheart who is now a sociology professor at California State University-Northridge.  They have two small children who bring them incredible joy and occupy all of Kristen’s free time.