AMANDA RIEGEL
CEO & Founder

Skipping to the Good Stuff

Favorite way to recharge: Walking Riley and Finley (our dogs) near the water.

Current Obsession: Setting boundaries now that I am 50! Oh, and Twizzlers and sour gummies.

Rule I break on purpose: Cursing when it counts.

Leadership crush: Sara Blakely because she reminds me that the best leaders are bold enough to dream big and generous enough to bring others with them.

Excelle started with a question I couldn’t shake.

Why were so many incredibly talented women hesitating to pursue head of school roles?

For nearly 30 years, I’ve had the privilege of working in independent schools in many capacities, from classrooms and admissions to development, governance, leadership search, and executive coaching. Every role has given me a different perspective on what schools need and what great leadership looks like.

As a search consultant, I met exceptional women leaders every day. They had the talent, the vision, and the experience. What they often didn’t have was the kind of support, community, and honest conversations that make leadership sustainable. Around the same time, serving as an independent school trustee and Board Chair gave me a front-row seat to the unique challenges women navigate once they step into those roles.

The more I listened, the clearer it became: women in educational leadership deserved a space built specifically for them – a space where coaching, peer community, and programming are designed for the specific terrain they navigate and where transparency and trust are operating principles.

Along the way, I began to believe something deeply: leadership isn’t just about having the right strategy. It’s about having the right support system. I realized the support so many women were looking for simply didn’t exist in the way they needed it to.

That’s why I founded Excelle.

In many ways the roots of Excelle go back much further. Long before I worked with school leaders, I was a Division I athlete and co-captain of my college field hockey and lacrosse teams. That’s where I learned some of my earliest leadership lessons: prepare well, trust your teammates, celebrate others’ success, and remember that no one wins alone.

As a proud mom of two fierce teenage daughters, who also remind me daily that courage, confidence, and kindness are muscles worth strengthening. And I know they're watching. So every day, I try to set the standard, not just be the voice of encouragement.

I founded Excelle because I’ve seen what happens when women leaders have the support they deserve. When they’re surrounded by a trusted community, encouraged to lead authentically, and given space to grow, they don’t just thrive—their schools, colleagues, and students do, too.

That’s the kind of leadership I’m excited to help build every single day.

That’s the story behind my work. For the professional highlights, visit my LinkedIn profile.