about CDL

Christine DeLeon (CDL) is the founder of CDL Consulting, where she works with education nonprofits and philanthropic organizations on strategy, leadership, and organizational development. Her work is grounded in equity, curiosity, and a strong bias toward action. CDL is known for her thoughtful facilitation, ability to build trust quickly, and talent for helping teams get aligned and move forward. She brings deep experience designing and leading leadership programs (both in-person and virtual) and coaching founders through periods of growth. Previously, she served as CEO of the Wend Collective, the philanthropic organization led by James Walton, where she oversaw strategy, operations, and impact.

CDL is most proud of serving as founder and CEO of Moonshot edVentures, where she was responsible for surfacing and supporting a diverse set of leaders, representative of the communities they aim to serve, to design and launch the schools and programs of tomorrow in Metro Denver. Previously, she founded Education Pioneers’ first year-long fellowship. Her other previous experiences include roles with Education Cities, Denver Public Schools, the Broad Foundation, and the Boston Consulting Group. She currently serves as an advisor to the Purpose Commons, is a former board chair for Moonshot, and served as a Harvard Innovation Lab Fellow. CDL is also is a certified 21/64 philanthropic advisor, and is a trained facilitator of Intergroup Dialogues.

Christine is a member of the inaugural cohort of the Pahara-NextGen Fellowship of Spring 2014, a 2019 Education Leaders of Color Boulder Fund recipient, the 2019 Sheila Bugdanowitz Award recipient and the 2020 A+ Colorado Sharpening Education Award. She holds a BBA from the University of Michigan and an Ed.L.D. from Harvard University. Christine enjoys getting outdoors, running and gardening, and spending time with her sons Emmett and Aidan, and husband, Ian.