Emma Nothmann

Emma Nothmann is a partner in Bridgespan’s San Francisco office. As such, Emma builds and maintains client relationships, and provides leadership and supervision to case team members. In addition to her role as a leader in Bridgespan's work focused on field building for equitable systems change, Emma has co-authored numerous articles on the subject, including: “Funding Field Catalysts from Origins to Revolutionizing the World,” “Field Catalyst Origin Stories: Lessons for Systems-Change Leaders,” “Field Building for Population-Level Change: How Funders and Practitioners Can Increase the Odds of Success,” and “How Philanthropy Can Support Systems-Change Leaders.”

Prior to joining Bridgespan, Emma was the executive director for the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Bay Area, where she focused on cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset in low-income youth through in-school programming and teacher development. Before Network for Teaching, she led the strategy and partnership development for new revenue-generating products at Edmodo, a global social learning platform focused on K-12 students and teachers.

Emma began her career in management consulting with Katzenbach Partners, where she supported strategy and organizational engagements for clients across a variety of sectors including software, health care, telecommunications, and energy. After Katzenbach’s acquisition by Booz & Co., she built the firm’s North American Education Practice, which grew to serve states, districts, charter management organizations, public-private partnerships, textbook publishers, and technology companies.

Emma earned her AB degree from Harvard University in East Asian Studies, with a focus on contemporary China. Her thesis focused on labor relations between the state and migrant workers. While at Harvard, Emma worked for the mission-driven travel guide company, Let’s Go. She eventually became its publishing director, managing business and editorial teams, and ensuring the fulfillment of Let’s Go’s mission around youth workforce development.