At rpk GROUP, each of our team members brings a unique breadth and depth to the lens of organizational transformation. Together, they help leaders and teams create safe spaces where difficult decisions can be made through data-informed, strategically framed dialogue. Each of our team members brings significant experience serving higher education, nonprofits and for-profit companies. They have “sat in the chair” and understand the challenges facing your organization today, as well as the solutions that are now transforming the industry.
Rick Staisloff
Senior Partner
Rick Staisloff is the founder and senior partner of rpk GROUP. In this role, he oversees the firm’s growth strategy and operations. Rick has been a leading voice in the development of sustainable business models for higher education, working closely with the American Council on Education, the Association of Governing Boards, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, NACUBO, and others to develop a new language and new metrics around cost, price, and finance issues for the higher education sector.
Katie Hagan
Principal
At rpk, Katie leads the firm’s Academic Portfolio and Resource Review projects, enabling institutions and systems to reallocate resources to meet the needs of students and employers. Katie also serves on rpk’s leadership team.
Lisa Clarke
Senior Associate
A member of the rpk team since its founding in 2010, Lisa manages the firm’s Administrative Services Review projects, which enable institutions and systems to streamline services, reduce cost and reinvest in the services that impact student success. Lisa often serves in advisory and embedded roles with rpk’s clients, joining as a senior team finance leader to support implementation of rpk’s recommendations.
Donna Desrochers
Senior Associate
Since joining rpk in 2015, Donna has focused her research on creating sustainable business models behind student success and academic innovation. She is an authority on higher education finance data and has analyzed contemporary issues in education and the economy for more than 20 years, reporting on changes in higher education spending, revenues, and outcomes.
Mike Daly
Senior Associate
Mike Daly supports rpk’s clients in understanding their academic portfolios and the contribution these make to a sustainable business model. The best practices discovered through these efforts also contribute to rpk’s field facing work and research. Mike’s recent efforts have supported restructuring of academic portfolios to reflect demand, enhancements to faculty workload policies and efficiencies, and ‘rightsizing’ of campuses.
Rilie Sibold Kafer
Associate
Rilie joined rpk in 2022. As an Associate, she supports our clients in fulfilling mission and student success under a sustainable financial model. Rilie focuses particularly on optimizing academic portfolios and instructional efficiencies.
Raven Moody
Senior Analyst
In her role as Senior Analyst, Raven applies over a decade of experience with higher education budget development and data analysis to the needs of our clients. She supports rpk’s project teams in the collection, analysis, and presentation of data essential for moving institutions toward more sustainable business models.
Emma Staisloff
Operations Manager
As Operations Manager, Emma supports both the leadership team and rpk as a whole in the delivery of critical internal services and quality client-facing projects. This includes responsibilities with finance/budget, human resources, information technology, risk management, business development, project management, and communications. In addition, Emma supports efforts to capture and continuously improve service delivery.
Sylvana Aho
Analyst
Sylvana joined rpk in 2022. As an analyst, she supports clients' efforts to be data-informed in their decisions related to academic programs, administrative services, and student success.
Muzhen Zhang
Analyst
Muzhen works with rpk GROUP clients from data collection and analysis through storytelling to move institutions toward more sustainable business models. She specializes in optimizing both academic portfolios and instructional efficiencies. Internally, Muzhen plays a key role in the development of new tools, in addition to driving database management across rpk initiatives.