Kronley & Associates is highly regarded for the careful attention we pay to the specific needs of each client. Every client is valued as a unique entity, and trusting relationships are at the core of our engagement with each. In building and sustaining these relationships, we avoid canned approaches and one-size-fits-all answers while emphasizing both responsiveness to client concerns and flexibility in addressing them. As a result, we collaborate with our clients in developing targeted solutions to persistent issues, in charting creative pathways to change and in developing deep understanding about the impact of possible strategies on goals and outcomes.
The relationships that develop between Kronley & Associates and its clients are cemented by the skills and experience that the firm brings to bear on its engagements. Framing issues, research and fact-finding, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and accessible report preparation and presentation are hallmarks of our work. These attributes have resulted in major assignments, which have garnered significant results and have had deep impact. These include:
- Providing a West Coast-based afterschool organization with strategic and business plans that enabled it to expand nationally and develop new sources of support
- Developing a strategic plan for a racially-divided Mississippi school district that resulted both in a new, more inclusive, curriculum and passage of the first bond referendum to support the city’s schools in more than 40 years
- Advising an Ohio education reform organization on a fundamental change in strategic direction and the content of programs to support its new approach; the resultant strategic plan is credited with having a “profound bearing on the future of (the County) and the statei”and enabled the organization to develop and monetize new services
- Advising a leading Midwest cultural organization on expanding its operations and providing funding, communications and branding strategies to support the change
- Advising major corporations on how their foundations and charitable giving programs can improve the company’s bottom line; this work led to, among other things, Kronley & Associates’ development of a series of workshops and seminars, entitled “Appreciating Assets,” for company-sponsored foundation leaders and the adoption of new charitable approaches by several companies
- Assisting acquirers of community hospitals in Arkansas and Illinois in creating community foundations that conformed to legal requirements and promoted brand recognition and goodwill that grew out of the charitable enterprise
- Developing a strategic plan for a large family foundation that, among other things, resulted in new synergies between the foundation and the charitable activities of a family-owned professional football team, enabling more investment in early childhood, education and after-school experiences
- Advising a Colorado energy entrepreneur about strategies for a family foundation to create and invest in asset-producing enterprises in low-income communities
- Advising a foundation created by an association of trial lawyers about changes in programs and organization that would ensure more positive recognition, increased capacity, and greater grant impact
- Developing, for a public charity, analyses of the state of higher education desegregation in the South and what is required to propel it, some of our recommendations were adopted in Maryland, Kentucky and Virginia; at the same time, the client was able to build on the model we provided to produce a series of follow-up reports over several years that earned significant national recognition and increased financial support.
Our Team
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Principal Associates
Ann Rosewater
A senior member of the team, Ms. Rosewater has extensive experience leading organizations in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government, including serving as Staff Director of the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families and as Counselor to the Secretary, Deputy Assistant Secretary, and Regional Director in the Department of Health and Human Resources. In her consulting work, she has advised foundations, non-profit organizations, federal, state and local governments and universities - including Ford, Annie E. Casey, Rockefeller, Pew Charitable Trusts, William and Flora Hewlett and Robert Wood Johnson - as well as for leading family, regional and community foundations. She currently serves on several non-profit boards, among them the Juvenile Law Center and Public Citizens for Children and Youth. Ms. Rosewater graduated with distinction from Wellesley College and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University.
Frederick J. Frelow, EdD
Dr. Frelow is chief executive officer for Frelow & Associates; he recently served as interim president for the Southern Education Foundation. From 2008 to 2017, Dr. Frelow was a key member of the Ford Foundation’s education and scholarship program in the United States. Prior to that, he was director of early-college initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, where he managed the development of fourteen early-college high schools. Dr. Frelow also served as associate director in the working communities division of the Rockefeller Foundation, where he oversaw development and implementation of the foundation’s school reform program. He also has had major responsibilities at The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future at Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to this work, Dr. Frelow had significant experience as a public school teacher and administrator. He holds an EdD degree in educational administration and policy analysis from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a master’s degree in education and policy analysis from Boston University.
Kate Shropshire Swett
Ms. Swett's education in business and her background in marketing, communications and project management has brought a unique perspective to the firm and added substantial value for clients. Professionally, Ms. Swett has worked with a range of organizations - from large corporations to small nonprofits and start-ups - to provide marketing, client relations, and project management. Firm projects have included dynamic dashboards, presentations, reports, surveys and research for clients including Ford Foundation, the Panasonic Foundation, the Georgia Charter Schools Association, Meridian Public School District, the Linda Hall Library, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Kauffman Foundation. Ms. Swett holds an M.B.A. from Oglethorpe University and a bachelor's degree from Guilford College.
Leslie J. Graitcer
Ms. Graitcer served as executive director of the BellSouth Foundation, where she established signature programs designed to strengthen school leadership and education quality for young people from pre-school to higher education. She has founded, chaired and/or served on numerous boards and advisory committees including Grantmakers for Education, the Center for Teaching Quality in North Carolina, the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, the Business Advisory Committee on Teacher Quality for the National Alliance of Business, and the Urban Teacher Residency Institute. Ms Graitcer has advised the Public Education Foundation (PEF) of Chattanooga on matters relating to teacher quality, development, planning, and evaluation Ms. Graitcer holds a master's degree in public health from Harvard University, a master's degree in education from Temple University, and a B.A. from Smith College.