About Me
I’m Deanna Peiffer, with 20+ years of experience helping organizations define strategy, design better experiences, and navigate change.
My work brings together human-centered design, business strategy, and stakeholder engagement to create solutions that are both practical and actionable. Even the best strategies struggle without alignment and momentum.
That’s why I engage the right people early, build shared ownership, and create clarity from the start—so teams move forward in lockstep.
With a 90%+ client retention rate, I’m known for being strategic, reliable, easy to work with, and for bringing the rigor that drives results.
I help take the edge off change—so transformation sticks.
Career Highlights
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Built and launched employers first Customer Experience (CX) practice, establishing company-wide capabilities in design thinking, human-centered research, and workshop facilitation, and developing scalable tools and playbooks adopted across multiple client engagements. Carried out similar for clients.
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Designed and operationalized a proprietary “High-Value Collaboration” methodology to improve organizational effectiveness across complex, multi-partner environments—aligning stakeholders on shared goals, decision rights, and ways of working—and led piloting, iteration, and firmwide enablement.
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Pioneered early adoption of AI tools across the organization, training consultants before AI became mainstream and leading client workshops to identify practical, mission-aligned use cases for operational efficiency, insight generation, and service delivery.
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Led solution design and modernization initiatives for federal and public sector clients, translating user and stakeholder needs into technology, data, and service delivery solutions through personas, service blueprints, requirements definition, and cross-functional delivery teams.
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Led firmwide transition to remote operations during COVID-19, partnering with executive leadership to establish work-from-home standards and training hundreds of staff on virtual facilitation, collaboration tools, and remote delivery practices to sustain business continuity
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Led a comprehensive digital and organizational modernization initiative for a 125-year-old community hospital, strengthening its competitive position in the Manhattan market through new brand strategy, first-ever digital presence, DEI workforce training, and implementation of electronic health records.
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Led a national strategic planning engagement for a major public health institution, engaging dozens of members and stakeholders to define a roadmap for building a more resilient and equitable U.S. public health system.
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Served as a trusted strategic advisor to executive and senior leadership teams across healthcare, utilities, public sector, and nonprofit organizations, guiding enterprise strategy, organizational design, and transformation initiatives in complex, highly regulated environments.
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Led multi-disciplinary consulting teams delivering large, complex transformation and innovation initiatives across strategy, technology, operations, and experience design for public and social impact clients.
Clients & Partners
Universities
Arizona State University Foundation
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Tulane University School of Public Health
Consumer Goods
Charles Schwab
Clorox Co
Non-Profits
American Assoc of Cancer Research
American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council
American Public Health Association
Meatless Monday Campaign
National Energy Efficiency Alliance