Ed Cortas directs the Consulting Services at the Center for Nonprofit Excellence. In addition to managing CNPE’s consulting staff, Ed serves as a consultant to the nonprofit community.

Over the course of his career, Ed has designed and facilitated trainings, group sessions, and leadership retreats on such topics as problem-solving, strategic, and operational planning, process design, mission and vision development, goal development, fundraising, board governance, and organi­zational assessment. Ed has worked with scores of nonprofits of all sizes, facilitating every­thing from one- and two-day retreats to extended multi-meeting planning engagements on a range of topics.

Before joining CNPE, Ed held leadership positions in fundraising, business administration, and strategic development with various nonprofit organizations within the region.

Ed holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. from the Saint Meinrad School of Theology, and a Master of Nonprofit Administration degree from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.

To learn more about CNPE’s consulting services or to retain one of our consultants, contact Ed Cortas, our VP of Strategic Initiatives & Consulting, at ecortas@cnpe.org  or 502-618-5329.

As a CNPE consultant, Terry Tolan brings a wealth of experience, a lifelong commitment to supporting children and families, and a passion for organizational excellence in the nonprofit sector.

Terry’s career in the United Way system spanned almost 25 years, including service in three local United Way offices and 15 years as the CEO of United Way of Kentucky. There, Terry created and delivered staff and volunteer training, facilitated strategic planning, raised public awareness, and conducted organiza­tional assessments for United Ways and other human service organizations regionally and nationally. She led the systems’ public policy efforts in Kentucky and Washington, DC. She has served in many lead­ership roles regionally and nationally.

While leading the Kentucky Governor’s Office of Early Childhood, Terry and her team secured a $44 million federal grant to transform early childhood systems and programs to better support young children and their families. Her systems-change work required working collaboratively across units of state and local government and building effective local teams to mobilize communities to support every child entering kindergarten ready to be successful.

Terry has worked with many organizations, including arts-based nonprofits, regulatory boards, historic and cultural organizations, and human service organizations regionally and nationally. Terry’s areas of expertise include strategic planning, nonprofit governance and management, organizational assessment, identifying and measuring program outcomes, financial management, mobilizing communities, strategic communications, and data-driven planning.

Terry is a graduate of the University of Memphis.

To learn more about CNPE’s consulting services or to retain one of our consultants, contact Ed Cortas, our VP of Strategic Initiatives & Consulting, at ecortas@cnpe.org  or 502-618-5329.

Eric has spent his career in management and consulting for 50 years across all three of our society’s sectors: public, private, and non-profit. Beginning with service as an intelligence officer in the US Air Force, Eric later worked in the federal civil service as a management analyst, and then joined the private sector as a technical manager, culminating as director of a Fortune 100 firm’s telecommunications voice and data network systems.

In 2001, Eric joined CNPE as Director of Consultation. During his 12-year tenure, he conducted over 1,000 board retreats and workshops. As a consultant, he focuses on effective board governance, stra­tegic planning, and the interrelationship between leadership and management. From his experiences at CNPE, Eric authored two books on non­profits: Striving for Excellence in the Social Sector (2010) and Shipshape: An Uncomplicated Guide to Navigating Your Nonprofit (2013)

Eric has broad teaching experience as an adjunct professor at Indiana University Southeast, Bellarmine University, and the University of Louisville in areas of management and nonprofit operations.

Reflecting upon his half-century involvement in all three sectors, Eric says that his most inspiring and rewarding experiences occurred in the nonprofit sector, where he helped influence organizations make profound changes for good in this community.

To learn more about CNPE’s consulting services or to retain one of our consultants, contact Ed Cortas, our VP of Strategic Initiatives & Consulting, at ecortas@cnpe.org  or 502-618-5329.