AMANDA RIEGEL:
CEO & Founder

Amanda Riegel founded Excelle after years of witnessing the same pattern. As a Search Consultant at Carney, Sandoe & Associates, she worked with talented women administrators who were reluctant to pursue head of school roles — not for lack of ability, but because the structures that make leadership sustainable for women simply did not exist. As a former Board Chair and independent school trustee, she supports heads of school and has observed firsthand the particular complexities women navigate in that role. What both experiences made clear is that women in educational leadership needed a space built specifically for them, with coaching, peer community, and programming designed for the specific terrain they navigate and where transparency and trust are operating conditions. Excelle is that space.

Amanda brings more than 20 years of experience working in and among independent schools. Her career spans classroom teaching, admission, development, and constituent relations at Friends Academy, The Wheeler School, The Gordon School, and Buckingham Browne & Nichols, giving her a grounded, multidimensional understanding of what school life asks of its leaders. As a Search Consultant at Carney, Sandoe & Associates, she deepened her expertise in leadership assessment and the qualities that set school leaders up for lasting success, including the relational and structural conditions that allow women to step fully into the role. Amanda channeled her board leadership experience and field research into building a Head of School Transition Program — a practical, community-focused roadmap that equips schools to set their new Heads up for success from day one.

A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the College of William & Mary, where she studied Psychology and Education, Amanda is also a certified Leadership and Performance Coach through Brown University's School of Professional Studies — a credential she brings directly to her work with Excelle members. She is also a presenter at NAIS, CAIS, and other national and regional convenings.

Amanda currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Moses Brown School and on the Capital Campaign Core Committee at The Gordon School, where she previously served as Search, Transition, and Board Chair. In addition, she was the founding Board Chair of Girls on the Run Rhode Island.

A former Division I athlete who co-captained her college field hockey and lacrosse teams, Amanda understands what it takes to perform at a high level while staying connected to the people around you. She is the proud mother of two fierce teenage girls and prioritizes emotional and physical well-being for her family.

Amanda founded Excelle because she's seen what happens when women in educational leadership are truly supported. When they're given space to lead into their relational instincts — to connect, to build trust, to lead with both head and heart — the institutions they lead are stronger. The students inside them feel it. Everything changes.