Pivot: Growth Practice
A former teacher turned consultant expanded her impact by staying true to her values.
Kelly Bies (MBA’18) didn’t set out to work in consulting. In fact, when she began her career, she was standing at the front of a middle school classroom in Chicago, teaching writing as a Teach For America Corps member. But even then, the seeds of her future were already taking root.
“I wouldn’t have predicted where I am today,” she says. “But looking back, it all makes sense.” Bies’ path into education was deeply personal. As a public policy undergraduate focused on education, she believed any future impact she could make required firsthand experience. That conviction was reinforced by her upbringing—where service and education were core family values—and by a defining childhood moment when her family home was destroyed in a fire. Teachers, she recalls, created a sense of stability and care during a frightening time. “They showed me how systems and people can change a student’s trajectory,” she says.
In the classroom, Bies quickly discovered strengths that would later define her career: navigating competing stakeholders, building trust, and guiding change. “You’re balancing students, parents, administrators,” she explains. “It taught me that to make meaningful change, you have to understand the whole ecosystem.”
Still, after several years, she began to feel a pull toward broader impact. While she valued teaching, she also recognized limits—both in the support structures available to educators and in the scale of influence she could have. That realization, paired with a desire for growth, led her to pursue an MBA at Georgetown.
Bies describes herself as risk-averse, so making this change was not an easy task. But, she also is data-driven. She asked herself a series of questions and let the answers guide her next steps. “What aligns with my values? What are those patterns, rather than job titles, that I should seek? What energized me? Is my work meaningful to the communities I care about? Do I get to grow and be challenged?”
“Some of that clarity helped me see that it wasn’t a risk. It was just an alignment with my path,” she said.
Graduate school became a turning point. “I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do,” she admits. “But I knew I wanted to expand my toolkit and explore where I could have the most impact.” At Georgetown, she found an environment that bridged business and mission—an intersection that would shape her next move.
Consulting offered what she was seeking: scale. Instead of impacting a single classroom, she could influence organizations, communities, and how they operate. She joined Deloitte after graduation, where much of her work focused on the public sector, aligning closely with her mission-driven roots. But over time, she noticed a pattern.
“I was most energized when I was working at the intersection of systems, people, and purpose,” she says.
That insight led her to her current role at Deloitte, where she is a manager for strategic services at the 0rm’s Growth & Purpose practice—helping organizations translate values into action. She finds the most fulfillment in driving impact for her clients in a way that benefits communities. Whether convening public and private stakeholders to support urban entrepreneurship or embedding purpose into business strategy, Bies now operates at a level that connects her past and present.
“In many ways, it’s the same work as teaching,” she reflects. “I’m still meeting people where they are, building trust, and leading change—just with different stakeholders.”
For those considering a career pivot, Bies offers grounded advice: every experience matters. “Your skills are transferable, even if it’s not obvious on paper,” she says. She also emphasizes the importance of community—seeking out people who both support and challenge you—and staying anchored in personal values.
“Values are your North Star,” she says. “When things feel uncertain, they help you see that it’s not just risk—it’s alignment.”
Today, Bies sees her journey not as a departure from education, but as an evolution of it. The classroom may be behind her, but the mission remains the same: investing in people, shaping systems, and creating meaningful change— now at a much larger scale.
This story was originally featured in the Georgetown Business Spring/Summer 2026 Magazine.