With more than 20 years of experience in senior roles at education nonprofits, Darlene Faster provides high-impact leadership, expert partnership development strategy, and exceptional large-scale project management and team mentorship to realize the mission and vision of diverse national nonprofits. Before launching a consulting career, Darlene Faster was the Senior Director of Northeast Region Partnerships at Sandy Hook Promise Foundation (SHP). In that role, she managed multiple high-priority, multi-year, federally-funded state partnerships with Departments of Education, Attorneys General Offices, and other state and local agencies to bring SHP's programs to scale across hundreds of diverse school districts across the country.

Prior to joining SHP, Darlene Faster was the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Communications at the National School Climate Center (NSCC) for twelve years, where she built their seminal school climate measurement tool, the Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (CSCI), into a nationally recognized instrument used by thousands of schools each year. To amplify the organization's recognition and impact, Darlene also developed long-term, mutually-beneficial research and implementation collaborations with key organizations including: Special Olympics, the International Institute for Restorative Practices, Facebook, the smash hit Broadway show WICKED, and many more. She convened national conferences on school climate improvement and represented her organization at conferences, in print, radio, T.V., and online. In addition to her operational leadership, Darlene Faster’s areas of education nonprofit expertise include: disability rights, school climate improvement, social emotional learning, bullying prevention, youth leadership, and school safety.