Meet Our Team
Our partners have led schools and entire networks, from lifting a Title I high school into New York City’s top 10 to overseeing a 19-school, 10,000-student portfolio.
With over more than 40 years as strategic and operational education leaders, we’ve refined that experience into a framework of thinking, our Blueprint, to accelerate achievement at scale across K-12 schools and educational institutions.
Barbara founded Blueprint to Great Schools in 2024. She leads innovation, manages internal operations, and maintains an advisory practice focused on college access program design and leadership. Before founding Blueprint to Great Schools, Barbara scaled high school and college access programs at the largest network of K-12 charter schools in New York City.
She serves on advisory boards for the University of Pennsylvania (from which she earned degrees in finance and history) and Columbia University. Barbara lives in New York with her husband and son, and can be seen on TV competing on game shows.
Executive Partner
Barbara Gao Shapiro
Rachel leads our School Design practice, supporting clients as they scale to new models or add sites. Prior to co-founding Blueprint to Great Schools, Rachel was principal of a Title I high school serving over 800 students. Under her leadership, the school rose from being unranked to earning a place among New York City’s top 10 high schools.
She earned her Master’s in Education from Touro College and her undergraduate degree from James Madison University. Rachel is an avid reader and long-distance runner, completing the New York City Marathon in 2024.
Managing Partner, School Design
Rachel Keane
Rita leads our Schooling practice, supporting clients to lead and transform their schools. Before co-founding Blueprint to Great Schools, Rita spent more than a decade at the largest charter school network in New York City. As the youngest K-12 superintendent (School Manager) in the network’s history, Rita managed a portfolio of 19 schools, spanning K-12 and over 10,000 students, that all performed in the top 1% of New York State.
She earned her Master’s in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University. Rita loves exploring the world with her husband and three children.
Managing Partner, Schooling
Rita Deng
Karina joined the Blueprint’s Schooling practice in 2026, supporting schools and their leaders to build rigorous instructional systems and deliver strong academic outcomes. She brings more than a decade of experience across grades 5-12, with leadership roles as a high school principal, dean of academics, and network-level science and mathematics curriculum director.
She earned her BA in Biology from Vassar College, where she was a QuestBridge Scholar. When she’s not on the cover of the New York Post for breaking test records, Karina enjoys spending time with her husband and twins in New Jersey.
Senior Manager, Schooling
Karina Germán
Melanie joined the firm in 2026, and translates complex ideas into visually compelling artifacts that drive thinking and decision-making. Melanie has over 15 years of experience scaling start-ups across industries ranging from specialty retail, hospitality, and fine art. Most recently, she was the Lead Curator for Tender Loving Empire, where she managed business lines that grew from less than $1 million to over $4 million in annual sales. Over her 7-year tenure, she oversaw growth in wholesale partnerships from 15 to over 250.
Melanie attended Northern Arizona University on a full merit scholarship, graduating cum laude with her degree in Arts Management and Art History. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and dog.
Creative Designer
Melanie Moseley
Our Core Beliefs
Schools shape society. The most powerful lever we have to improve our communities is to improve our schools through lasting change.
Vision creates direction; systems make it real. Achieving ambitious school outcomes requires translating a vision into clear priorities, measurable goals, and shared understanding across an organization.
Even the best-designed systems fail without aligned leadership. Lasting change comes from a united front of vision-aligned, systematic leaders.
Reflection sustains coherence. Schools improve when leaders regularly examine their Beliefs & Behaviors in the face of externalities.
and Behaviors
We coach for action. Easier said than done: We will challenge thinking, and push leaders to break out of their routines to focus on the highest-leverage work.
We develop high-capacity leaders. Our approach centers on working directly with promising school and district leaders to help them lead with confidence and clarity.
We design alongside. When clients lack capacity or systems, we can model decision-making, strengthen rationale, and upskill teams in real time.
We accelerate progress through trust and candor. Lasting change requires transparency, shared accountability, and the willingness to lead with conviction.
How We Work
Expertise that shows up in the building
01
Proven leaders
We’ve been principals, superintendents and network leaders, accountable for results across thousands of students. We know what the work asks of you because we’ve done it.
02
Feet on the ground
We work alongside your leaders in schools and classrooms, not from a distance, so every recommendation fits how your school actually runs.
03
Built to last
Our goal is capacity, not dependence: systems, routines and skills your team owns long after we step back.
Let’s talk about what your schools need next.
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