Mary Chambers
Founder & President, The Chambers Consulting Group
Mary Chambers is a Los Angeles-based organizational effectiveness, public policy, and strategic communications consultant with special expertise in launching and leading community, philanthropic, and corporate organizations; funder collaboratives; and peer learning circles. In 1995, she founded The Chambers Consulting Group to help leaders amplify their impact by connecting their visions to actionable goals to achieve measurable results. A dynamic, motivational, and strategic planner and proven consensus-builder, Ms. Chambers has been called upon by top philanthropic, nonprofit, corporate, government, and civic leaders across the nation to help move their projects forward.
An attorney with a background in legislative and political strategy, Ms. Chambers served as Vice President of Robinson, Lake, Lerer & Montgomery, a strategic communications firm in Washington, DC. Prior to joining this firm, she served as the Chief of Staff to US Congressman Robert T. Matsui, playing a critical role in the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided reparations for Japanese Americans interned during WWII. She also served as Chief Deputy to California State Assembly speaker pro tempore Mike Roos of Los Angeles.
Ms. Chambers left Washington, DC, to join the newly formed nonprofit Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN) as its Executive Vice President. A community organization formed to engage leaders from every corner of the diverse Los Angeles community in an education reform dialogue of unprecedented scope, LEARN generated a community-wide consensus and a unanimous school board vote in support of a blueprint for a fully restructured Los Angeles public school system. Since its adoption in 1991, the LEARN plan has been widely studied and heralded as the most far-reaching and innovative education reform plan in the country. The organization currently exists as Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, a high-achieving network of charter schools serving students in Los Angeles’ most economically disadvantaged communities.
Later, as Director of Civic Engagement at the California Community Foundation, Ms. Chambers created and led a highly acclaimed peer learning series for nonprofit and philanthropic leaders throughout the Los Angeles area. She also served as Managing Director of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation work to create and fund small high schools in the Los Angeles region.
From 2012 to 2013, Ms. Chambers served as Interim CEO of Southern California Grantmakers, a membership organization of the Southern California region's family, public, private, independent, and community foundations; corporate public benefit programs; individual philanthropists; and government agencies. Her interim executive leadership resulted in a period of unprecedented growth, expanded programming and partnerships, fiscal stability, and strong board and executive leadership for the organization.
Since launching The Chambers Consulting Group, Ms. Chambers has worked as a trusted advisor to numerous elected leaders, from Mayors to Members of Congress. She has also helped a wide range of corporate, philanthropic, and nonprofit boards and government agencies amplify their effectiveness and advance social change including ARCO, Mattel Children's Foundation, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, The California Endowment, Weingart Foundation, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, National Venture Capital Association, Milken Institute, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation, Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Council, Southern California Grantmakers, and the White House Conference on Childcare. Additionally, Ms. Chambers has served as an interim nonprofit and foundation CEO, helping boards of directors lead their organizations during critical periods of executive leadership transition.
