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Pamela McVeagh-Lally, MSEd is an education, non-profit, and philanthropic consultant dedicated to helping all children thrive through building the field of equity-focused social and emotional learning (SEL) and advancing the effectiveness and impact of SEL-focused organizations. Her clients include school districts, state departments of education, higher education institutions, grantmaking foundations, education nonprofits, and social enterprises.
Examples of Pamela’s consulting projects include: serving as project director and subject matter expert to develop graduate level, online social and emotional learning courses for California educators and leaders in partnership with UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare, University Extension, and Sacramento County Office of Education. She also served as director of programming for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning’s (CASEL) inaugural 2019 SEL Exchange Conference, which brought together 1,500 education leaders from 30 countries to advance high quality, evidence-based SEL; developing strategic plans for many SEL, education, and leadership development non-profit organizations, including Transformative Educational Leadership; collaborating with Partnership for Children and Youth and California education leaders to create SEL Guiding Principles and Transformative SEL Competencies for California Department of Education; co-developing the CALHope SEL professional learning modules for U.C. Berkeley’s Greater Good in Education; developing the Nebraska Department of Education Social and Emotional Learning Resources for Educators and Leaders Guide; writing case studies such as Investing in the Holistic Development of Bridgeport, Connecticut’s Children, a report on 8 years of investment by Tauck Family Foundation; creating a systemic SEL implementation plan for Aspire Schools’ network of 40 sites; co-creating tools and subject matter expertise for the Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development How Learning Happens suite; revising pre-K-12 curriculum for SEL program providers; creating funding plans for grantmaking foundations; designing and facilitating strategic gatherings and events, including extensive educator professional learning, among many other projects.
Pamela began her career in philanthropy at NoVo Foundation in New York City. Working in partnership with Robert Sherman PhD, she was the founding manager of the Social and Emotional Learning Initiative. Notably, during her six-year tenure, NoVo’s SEL Initiative co-developed and funded Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning’s (CASEL) Collaborating Districts Initiative, the first effort to scale systemic SEL across large, urban districts in the U.S. As Tauck Family Foundation’s Fellow, she led special projects and implemented the Foundation’s social investing strategy to support youth-serving organizations and schools to promote SEL in elementary-aged children from low-income families in Bridgeport, CT. As Associate Director of Dovetail Learning, Pamela led the California-based nonprofit’s strategic planning and growth initiatives, oversaw, and improved all aspects of operations, wrote a three-year business plan to scale the organization’s K-6 SEL program, and co-led a curricula redesign.
Pamela founded NYC Sitters, a childcare professional placement company and has a background in childcare and the arts. She holds a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education with a concentration in social and emotional learning from Erikson Institute and completed master’s degree coursework in Educational Psychology at NYU. She holds a certificate in Grantmaking and Foundations from NYU’s Heyman School of Philanthropy and Fundraising, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Otterbein University where she graduated summa cum laude with honors and distinction. Pamela is also the co-founder of SEL for Ohio. Pamela is originally from the U.K. and holds dual citizenship. Currently, she lives in Ohio and consults nationally.
