Thriver · Philadelphia

Alliyah Yvette Francis.

Strategy and operations leader. I turn ambiguous problems into working models, real revenue, and systems that hold up after launch. Across corporations and communities.

Strategy is only as good as whether it reaches the people it was meant for. I have spent my career closing that gap, in boardrooms and in communities. On the corporate side, I have built revenue models, led operational transformation, and turned programs dependent on temporary funding into sustainable, self-sustaining ones. On the nonprofit side, I founded and built an organization from nothing, owning strategy, operations, and fundraising end to end. Across both, my work is the same: frame the hard question, evaluate the tradeoffs, and recommend a clear path forward, then build the systems that make it real. Bridging gaps, building futures.

Alliyah Francis, systems change strategist and founder, photographed in Philadelphia.

I do this work across corporate and nonprofit settings, because the discipline is the same: find the real problem, model the path, and build what lasts.

By the Numbers

The work, measured.

300,000+
Students reached across the portfolio I help drive
$2.5M+
Annual revenue portfolio I own end to end
32
Colleges scaled into one program, cumulative
4,700+
Women served through Thrive Philly to date
20
States where I've run focus groups and listening sessions
6
Years building Thrive Philly from nothing

Figures reflect program reach and portfolio scope across Motivate Lab and Thrive Philly.

Case Study

Turning a funded program into a self-sustaining revenue model.

The work

I led a federal grant from start to finish. Not a piece of it. The whole arc, from design through delivery to close-out. The work put 52+ focus groups on the ground across 20 states, produced 3 publications, and stood up the largest student well-being survey in osteopathic medical education. I also co-authored both professional development courses the program is built around — the Resilient Mindsets in Medicine Faculty Course and the Student Support Professionals Course. Real research, real reach, real findings that moved the field.

The problem

Federal funding ends. When it does, the work usually ends with it. Not because it stopped working, but because the money ran out and no one built what came next.

What I did

I authored and secured a new direct-funded contract that moved the program off grant dependency onto a recurring institutional sales model. I designed how member colleges buy in, what they pay for, and how the revenue renews year over year, then built the sales process, pricing logic, and operational workflow underneath it.

The result

A program that funds itself. It scaled to 32 colleges of osteopathic medicine and 200+ faculty, with reach across roughly 200,000 students, and a funding model built to outlast any single grant cycle.

The throughline

I don't just run the program. I build the thing that keeps it alive after the first funder is gone.

AI in Practice

Two sides of the same fluency.

I use AI as a working layer in my own day, building generative AI into Google Apps Script workflows to speed up document creation, reporting, analysis, and partner communication. It's infrastructure, not a headline.

And I teach it. At Thrive Philly, I train students on practical, responsible AI adoption as part of professional-readiness programming, so the people I serve aren't left behind by a tool that's reshaping the work they're preparing for.

Using it well and teaching it well are different skills. I do both.

An Identity Map

The Logic Model of Me.

The business case above is the what. This is the why underneath it.

A first-generation map from Ahoskie to West Philly to Spelman to Penn to here. The lineage, the formation, the work, and the throughline that makes the whole thing make sense.

The Classroom

Teaching as Liberation.

For four years, I taught high school biology in Philadelphia — building a classroom rooted in culturally relevant pedagogy, belonging, and community. Science as a doorway, not a gate.

Born at the pivot of COVID — when community was told to pause, Philly STEMinist pressed play. Built for students who didn't have laptops or stable internet but did have a cellphone and a Wi-Fi signal to borrow. A reminder that learning doesn't stop because access does. Using what students had — bridging gaps to build futures through education.

From the Newsletter

The latest essay.

Long-form on building, power, and rewriting shame into strategy. New pieces land when there's something worth saying.

Founder Notes · New

We Always Knew the Way: Wayfinding, Navigational Capital, and the Maps Black Folk Carry in Our Bones

Wayfinding, navigational capital, and the maps Black folk carry in our bones.

Before GPS, before highways, before anyone drew a line on a map for us, we knew the way. This is an essay about navigational capital — the inherited knowledge Black folk use to move through systems that were never built for us — and the quiet genius of finding home anyway.

Founder Notes · 7 min read

How to Champion Your Testimony to Thrive as a Founder of Self

Rewrite the shame. Hold your peach. Clock it.

Every founder carries a testimony. Most are taught to hide it. This is the argument for doing the opposite, and the practice it takes to turn shame into strategy and conditions into receipts.

Watch

On screen.

Thrive Club on YouTube. Plus the short-form on TikTok. Everything that doesn't fit in a paragraph.

Thrive Club · Episode 01
Subscribe to Thrive Club →
Substack

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Strategy, essays, and the receipts behind the work. Delivered when I've got something worth saying.

The Work

Multifaceted by design.

Strategy, community, and storytelling. Each pillar feeding the next.

01 / Nonprofit

Thrive Philly

The nonprofit closing wellness, education, and economic gaps across Philadelphia.

Support the work →
03 / Speaking

Keynotes & Panels

On systems change, women's leadership, and educational equity. Featured for Black Girls Can's Pathway to Power Tour.

Book me to speak →
04 / Research

Motivate Lab

Systems thinking, curriculum design, and educational equity — research translated into evidence-based solutions at scale.

See my work →
05 / Recognition

Press & Features

Top Philadelphia Woman Entrepreneur — Immortal Vision spotlight. Plus selected features and coverage.

See coverage ↓
Currently
Motivate LabProjects in motion

Educational equity at scale.

A snapshot of the initiatives I'm leading and contributing to across systems, states, and disciplines.

AACOM · National

Resilient Mindsets in Medicine

Training medical school faculty across 11 colleges in the current cohort.

KYSSC · Kentucky

Kentucky Mindset Academy

Year-long PD for Kentucky educators teaching gateway college courses.

CCCCO · California

Equitable Placement

System-wide implementation of AB 705, AB 1705, and ESS 23-08.