Dr. Peter Frank professional brand banner

The Convergence

Education Policy Architect.
Collaborative Leader.
Transformational Coach.

$265.7MFormer COVID-Relief Portfolio
1.4MStudents Served
31K+NSBE Members Served

I help public agencies and mission-driven organizations fix the systems holding their teams back. My PhD in Organic Chemistry grounds how I work: find the rate-limiting step, adjust the conditions, and let the right catalyst do its work. I bring that same lens to federal grant portfolios, public policy, and one-on-one leadership coaching.

Explore Impact View Full Bio
Dr. Peter Frank, education policy architect, AI governance strategist, and leadership coach

Leadership in Action

Translating Research-Based Policy into Human-Centered Impact

Dr. Peter Frank presenting “The Continuous Improvement Cycle for Enhancing Student Performance” at Kean University
Dr. Peter Frank with NJDOE colleagues at the Migrant Education McKinney-Vento event

Presented "The Continuous Improvement Cycle for Enhancing Student Performance" at Kean University. This framework synthesized three collaborative domains: scientific structural design, systemic scale across 600+ districts, and human performance coaching.

Our interdisciplinary group bridged rigid federal compliance with asset-rich, student-centered pedagogy. By establishing trust-based communication, we translated dense legislation into classroom practice districts could actually use.

Program Architecture

Adaptive Systems. Interdependent Thriving.

Valuing truth, people, and well-being: the means and the ends both matter, and systems are designed to care for the people doing the work.

Clarity & Courage Lab: Coaching With Dr. Pete logo

Current Venture · Executive Coaching · Relational Architecture

Catalyst & Courage Lab

A solo, AI-supported coaching and consulting venture built on systems thinking and Rutgers Leadership Coaching practice. I work with executives and public-sector leaders to locate the rate-limiting step in how their organization runs, align workflows with what teams can sustain, and build cultures where people name the hard thing early. The coaching practice runs as Clarity & Courage Lab: Coaching With Dr. Pete, with engagements from a 90-minute diagnostic to a three to six month embedded advisory.

Rutgers LCOPCertified Coach
90 MinClarity Conversation
3–6 MoEmbedded Advisory
Maximizing Federal Education Funds infographic: coordinating school funding to improve student outcomes

Ongoing Administration · Strategic Compliance · Fiscal Optimization

Maximizing Federal Funds Campaign

Co-developed and helped deploy the Maximizing Federal Funds website, presenting ESSER allowable-use guidance New Jersey districts used to plan spending that could be sustained beyond the federal deadline. Recognized nationally by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in 2024.

99%Utilization
SystemicDrawdowns
CCSSO 2024National Recognition
Great Seal of the State of New Jersey, Department of Education

2021–2024 · Strategic Finance · Systemic Scale

$265.7M Federal ESSER Grant Portfolio

Worked alongside fiscal, program, and compliance colleagues on the allocation, compliance screening, and administrative oversight of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) II and III funds across New Jersey school districts, supporting the shift from pandemic-era crisis spending to fiscal practice districts could carry forward. Contributed to the statewide technical assistance — monthly ARP ESSER Round Tables and presentations helping districts build their uses-of-funds plans — that the U.S. Department of Education commended by name in its FY2023 Comprehensive Performance Review of NJDOE.

$265.7MESSER Portfolio
1.4MLearners Served
USED CommendationLEA Technical Assistance, FY2023
From Grant to Graduation: New Jersey Innovation Dual Enrollment Pilot Grant, accelerating futures through high school studies plus college credits to an Associate's Degree at graduation

2023–2024 · Education Policy · Collective Design

Innovation in Dual Enrollment (NJ)

Partnered with fiscal and research colleagues to help steer New Jersey’s first competitive dual enrollment grant from concept to statewide launch, and to build the digital guidance hub districts use to plan and apply. Figures below come from Phase 1 pilot site reporting, measured against each site’s pre-grant baseline year.

99.7%Course Completion, Lead Site
2.4xEconomically Disadvantaged Seats
$500KPilot Grant Value
Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics, Alumni Serving NJ Government: Peter Frank, Department of Education

2020–2021 · Public Policy · State-Level Governance

Eagleton Science and Politics Fellowship

Selected to bring scientific analysis into state-level policy work during the pandemic. Served as point of contact for a statewide webinar co-produced with Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic on student engagement in remote instruction. In early 2021, I presented these findings directly to NJDOE leadership, providing early, New Jersey-specific research to inform the state’s priorities before the work expanded into a six-part statewide professional development series. I facilitated the resulting six-factor framework — instructional delivery, technology access, staffing, family engagement, extracurricular activities, and social-emotional learning — that became the backbone of that series.

Statewide PD SeriesStudent Engagement in Remote & Hybrid Learning
NJDOE Leadership BriefingEarly 2021 Strategic Insight
6-Factor FrameworkFacilitated & Adopted Statewide
Dr. Peter Frank with colleagues at the United States Capitol, advocating for school funding

2018–2019 · Strategic Policy · Grassroots Advocacy

Grassroots Policy Advocacy Training · NASP Public Policy Institute

Completed two years (2018, 2019) of the National Association of School Psychologists’ Public Policy Institute, a national program training school psychologists and educators in grassroots federal advocacy. Each year culminated in a Capitol Hill day: bipartisan briefings with Senate and House staff across the political spectrum, followed by direct visits to Congressional offices advocating for school safety, student mental health, and equitable funding priorities later reflected in H.R. 1865 (Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020), signed December 20, 2019.

2 Cohorts2018 & 2019 PPI
Capitol Hill DayBipartisan Senate & House Briefings
Grassroots AdvocacyNASP-Certified Training
NMReady benchtop NMR system used in the Phillips Academy Andover chemistry curriculum and research course

2017–2019 · Academic Innovation · Instrumentation Infrastructure

Strategic Asset Procurement · Phillips Academy Andover

Secured a competitive $50,000 institutional grant to purchase an NMReady benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance system, then built spectroscopic analysis into the course sequence so students ran and interpreted their own spectra instead of reading someone else’s. During my tenure the instrument reached 12 College Chemistry sections and 4 Advanced Placement sections, supported by 4 faculty instructors, and it anchored the department’s first chemistry research course. The asset has since scaled into an advanced organic chemistry elective pathway that continues past my time there.

$50KCapital Grant
16Class Sections Reached
4Faculty Instructors
Research CourseCurriculum Built
NSBE 2014–15 International Committee, National Executive Board

2014–2015 · Community Architecture · National Executive Board

Engineering Society · International Growth Infrastructure

As Chair of the International Committee on the National Executive Board of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), I worked alongside a 12-member committee on the “Going Global” campaign: revitalizing the Society’s international arm into a fully staffed committee, expanding chapters across Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Germany, and the Caribbean, and building the Chapter Buddy System, Consulting Design Olympiad, and NSBE Ambassador Program into infrastructure that outlasted our terms. During my tenure (March 2015), NSBE’s National Executive Board adopted NSBE 2025, the Society’s decade-long vision to graduate 10,000 Black engineers annually; our board mapped the points along the pipeline where students were falling out before completing a STEM degree and built new international and regional programming to close those gaps.

31K+Members Served
NSBE 2025 VisionAdopted March 2015, During Tenure
21 & 6Regional & National Workshops Delivered

Social Proof

Endorsements from the Field

Dr. Peter Frank

The convergence of science, policy, and coaching.

Uplifting Teams.
Expanding Access.
Catalyzing Systemic Change.

I have spent my career studying how complex systems work, and how to help them run better. My foundation began in the lab, earning a PhD in Organic Chemistry. In chemistry, when a reaction fails to yield results, you don’t blame the molecules; you examine the environment. You look for the rate-limiting steps, adjust the pressure, and introduce the right catalyst. Today, I apply that exact same systems lens to public policy, large-scale grant operations, and leadership coaching.

At the New Jersey Department of Education, I help oversee ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) Title II and Title IV-A grants supporting districts and learners statewide, and previously oversaw the state’s $265.7M ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) grant portfolio. Working alongside incredible cross-functional teams, my focus is on removing systemic friction so that funds are deployed with maximum efficiency and reach. This collaborative effort achieved near-perfect fund utilization prior to expiration and earned a Commissioner’s Team Excellence Award, ensuring critical resources reached the communities with the greatest need.

Beyond public administration, I am an LCOP (Leadership Coaching and Organizational Performance)-Certified leadership coach, trained through an ICF (International Coaching Federation)-accredited program, and the founder of Catalyst and Courage Lab. I partner with executives, educators, and emerging leaders to help them navigate change, build trust-based teams, and grow the collective agency of those closest to the mission, so they can drive sustainable, high-impact results.

Always looking toward the next horizon of governance, I am applying AI to strengthen workflows, informed by training in the responsible use of AI in government. Whether architecting grant programs, building evidence-based tools and frameworks, coaching a senior leader, or designing ethical AI workflows, my mission stays constant: building systems where human potential is never stifled, only amplified. By bridging data, policy, and human-centered design, I help build impact-oriented teams where everyone can truly thrive.

Operating Principles

Systems & Institutional Architecture

Organizational success depends on the precise alignment of everyday operations with high-level strategy. By looking past surface symptoms to address foundational structures, we address systemic friction at its root: we identify the rate-limiting step, then the catalyst that changes the rate.

Designing for Human Thriving

People are naturally creative, resourceful, and capable. Exceptional organizations reject transactional compliance in favor of honoring the whole person, building environments where teams can authentically thrive and sustainably deliver their best work.

Collaborative Execution & Joint Stewardship

Transformational leadership is a team discipline built on reciprocal learning and mutual trust. By actively seeking diverse perspectives and prioritizing the assist over the individual goal, we align stakeholders and build lasting consensus, so every win is a shared one.

Purpose-Driven Adaptive Vision

Resilient organizations hold tightly to their core mission but remain fluid in execution. By shifting from reactive management to proactive agility and embedding continuous feedback loops, we turn operational friction into intentional growth.

Collaboration Models

Pathways to Partnership

Three ways to work with me, from a single focused conversation to a full-time role. Each is built to fit your team, your timeline, and the scale of the problem you are solving.

Clarity & Courage Lab: Coaching With Dr. Pete

Clarity Conversation

90 minutes · Focused diagnostic

  • Collaborative analysis of a program, policy draft, or strategic challenge
  • Mutual exploration of high-leverage intervention options
  • Synthesized action guide delivered within 48 hours

Strategic Partnership

Embedded Advisory

3–6 months · Hands-on strategic and systems consulting

  • Co-design of policy architecture, grant structures, or educational frameworks
  • Embedded integration within active teams to facilitate mutual learning
  • Structured guidance that equips and supports in-house program owners

Senior Leadership

Executive Role

Full-time · Collaborative Executive

  • Full-time leadership as Chief of Staff, Director of Government Relations, or Head of Strategic Partnerships
  • Systems-level ownership translating federal compliance and grant operations into measurable outcomes
  • Executive presence and trust-based collaboration across agencies, foundations, and cross-functional teams
  • ...and other senior leadership roles where systems-thinking and cross-sector fluency matter most

Initiate Dialogue

Let’s build for interconnected thriving.

True impact is built through mutual trust and clear communication. By bridging the rigor of scientific analysis, the scale of public policy, and the deep empathy of transformational coaching, we can rewire complex infrastructures and co-create outcomes for our interconnected thriving.

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