FOUNDER • STRATEGIST • FACILITATOR
Lisa Bain Carlton, M.Ed.
Most people are looking for a map. I help them find their compass.
For more than three decades, I've explored one enduring question.
What helps individuals and organizations grow?
That question has shaped every chapter of my career.
Over time, I realized I tend to approach that question in a particular way.
I'm usually the person in the room asking:
What's still working?
What's no longer serving us?
And what do we need to build next?
Because the challenge isn't simply deciding what to change. It's recognizing what deserves to be preserved, what needs to be rethought, and what it's time to build next.
Those questions have shaped every opportunity I've chosen to pursue.
In 2008, I founded College MatchPoint at my kitchen table and grew it into a nationally recognized company that was acquired in 2024. Earlier in my career, I directed the 24-hour suicide prevention program in San Mateo County, California, where I secured grant funding to launch one of the nation's early crisis text line programs for teens. I developed an innovative career development program for first-generation high school students that was adopted by organizations across the country, and I helped establish a childcare center for families navigating domestic violence cases in the Westchester County, New York, court system. Today, I have the privilege of serving as President of IECA.
Looking back, those don't feel like separate accomplishments.
They feel like different ways of exploring the same question. That's why I'm more interested in helping people find their compass than handing them a map.
How I Work
I bring a counselor’s curiosity to strategy.
Whether I’m advising leaders, facilitating board conversations, coaching entrepreneurs, or speaking to organizations, I ask the question underneath the question. The obvious problem is rarely the real one.
As founder and CEO of College MatchPoint, I grew a kitchen-table idea into a nationally recognized company that was later acquired. Building College MatchPoint was one of the great privileges of my career. I loved creating a company where talented women could bring their whole lives to work. We built roles around people's strengths instead of asking them to fit predefined jobs, creating a culture where people could do their best work while serving families well.
It also reinforced something Bob and I came to believe deeply: generosity isn't a business strategy. It's simply how we wanted to work. Some of the most meaningful moments of our careers came from freely sharing what we knew because it could genuinely help someone else.
I’m intentionally leaving room for curiosity to lead. Rather than defining Carlton Ventures too narrowly, I’m exploring where leadership, new technology, healthy development, and entrepreneurship intersect—and listening for what the world needs next.
My first career was about building a company. I believe this next chapter is about building ideas.
The Ideas
Today, my work lives under Carlton Ventures, which Bob and I are building together. Some ideas we'll pursue jointly. Others we'll lead independently.
Right now, I'm especially interested in exploring questions like:
How are AI and social media reshaping child and adolescent development?
How do parents intentionally shape the experiences that help their children develop character, confidence, curiosity, and resilience?
How do organizations recognize what's still working, what needs to be rethought, and what it's time to build next?
How can entrepreneurship become a more accessible path for women to create financial independence, leadership, and lasting impact?
These questions are finding their way into my writing, speaking, workshops, and selected collaborations.
While I'm honored to continue serving as President of IECA, I'm no longer working directly with students or consulting with educational consultants.
Beyond Work
Outside of work, you'll usually find me exploring Santa Fe's art galleries, planning my next adventure, spending time with family, or reading anything that helps me better understand people and the world around us.
I'm endlessly curious about ideas, beautiful places, meaningful conversations, and the moments that change the way we see ourselves and each other.
Curiosity has a way of changing more than what we know.
It changes who we become.