2015 Game Changer: Teresa Clarke

For large companies, a $1.8 million savings in health care costs might elicit a polite smile and nod from senior leadership, but for a midsize nonprofit organization with a mission to bring high-level education to urban students, it’s quite an achievement.

Achievement First’s Teresa Clarke, 39, was able to bring home those insurance savings in the first few months after she joined the organization, and she even negotiated a rate cap to ensure continued savings.

It’s a nice luxury to have a lawyer in the human resources department managing a staff of four HR generalists.

Max Polaner, Achievement’s chief financial and strategy officer, wrote: “Teresa led the effort to bring our HR function out of the dark ages by leading the charge to overhaul some of the antiquated processes.”

And that’s only a taste of why Clarke deserves to have the spotlight shown on her as a Workforce Game Changer.

Photo by Mark Thompson Photography