Our Team

MANAGING PARTNER

Atlanta, Georgia

Dr. Ebbie Parsons, III, is the Founder and Managing Partner of Yardstick Management. A seasoned business executive with a passion for intentional impact, he has been applauded for his strategic thinking, engaging leadership, and results-oriented mindset throughout his successful career. After working at Fortune 500 companies, including Intel, Medtronic, and American Express, Dr. Parsons III decided to transition from a promising career in business in 2007 to join the prestigious Broad Residency Program in Educational Leadership. The Broad Residency was his first introduction to the inner-workings of America’s public education system, where he served as the Chief Operating Officer of Hartford Public Schools.

Championing the overhaul of the district’s school funding methodology, he negotiated the state’s first pay-for-performance teacher union contract. He led the redistricting of the city to an “All-Choice” system of schools. Following his time in Hartford, Dr. Parsons, III, was on the founding team of the groundbreaking Relay Graduate School of Education, where he led the organization’s Human Capital function. Following Relay, he took on a new challenge to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of the third-largest Charter Management Organization in the U.S., Mosaica Education, Inc. At Mosaica, Dr. Parsons, III, managed over 80 schools across eight states, Washington, D.C., the Middle East, and Asia. He led Mosaica to its two consecutive most profitable years in its 14-year history while simultaneously leading the company to its highest academic performance results in years.

Leveraging his wealth of experience and expertise in business and education, he launched Yardstick Management with a vision to become a leader in transforming and impacting the global landscape of the management consulting industry. Less than a decade later, Yardstick has become a world thought leader and powerhouse in providing specialized Management, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Talent consulting services to renowned mission-driven brands and organizations worldwide. Yardstick is committed to building its clients’ internal capacity to enhance its ability to deliver extraordinary results to its constituents.

He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Florida A&M University, an MBA from the University of Minnesota, and a Doctorate in Educational and Organizational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. He has also served as a Faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education. Dr. Parsons, III, has extensive board leadership experience, including serving on the boards of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Lighthouse Academies, Children’s Orchestra Society, the Georgia Symphony Orchestra, Urban Ministries, Inc., the Atlanta Music Project (an El Sistema Program), The Winans Group and the Finance Corps. Dr. Parsons, III, is a Fellow with the Pahara Institute and the Aspen Institute and is a Member of the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Dr. Parsons, III, resides in Atlanta, GA, with his wife, Ayana, and their adorable daughters, Ebbie Noelle, aka “Noey,” and Noohra Celeste. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling, kayaking, and, most of all, rooting for his favorite hometown team, the Michigan Wolverines. Go BLUE!

Principal Consultant

Memphis, Tennessee

Mansa Bilal Mark King serves as a Principal Consultant at Yardstick Management. He is responsible for key project work at Yardstick Management and for growing the portfolio. Before joining Yardstick, Bilal served as an Associate Professor of Sociology at Morehouse College for 14 years and as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Middle Tennessee State University for 2 years. Prior to this, Bilal combined college and graduate school courses with his work on basic and applied social science research projects. In this capacity, he was a research assistant in the Career Opportunities in Research program at The American Institutes for Research and on the Three-City Study on Families, Children, and Welfare project. Since finishing school in 2006, he has conducted independent research projects on father involvement in America’s inner-cities, religious conversion in Ghana, and Black America’s transnationalism. He published chapters/articles on the first two topics, but the third project is ongoing. His other publications invited lectures, and project work has addressed Black-White racial reconciliation, Africana Muslims in liberal arts education, and diversifying the body of American college students who study abroad. In addition to the introductory sociology course, Bilal’s classes are taught most often are Men in Society, Classical Social Theory, and Africana Families.

Bilal holds a Ph.D. and M.A in sociology from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in psychology (minor in mathematics) from Howard University. He graduated from Howard Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude.

Bilal resides in Atlanta with his wife Fikira, and their daughters, Sabila, Hafsatu, and Asmaoo. He is familiar with Wolof, Hausa, Kiswahili, Classical Arabic, and Spanish. His community work includes educational engagements with local and regional faith organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee in Atlanta, Tayseer Seminary in Knoxville, and the Islamic Networks Group in San Jose. Outside of professional interests, he enjoys exercise, travel, art, and playing monopoly or chess with his children.

Principal Consultant

Atlanta, Georgia

Shannon Hassler serves as a Principal Consultant for Yardstick Management, where she leads our executive search practice and serves as a key member of our diversity, equity, and inclusion practice.

Shannon brings 20 years of talent acquisition and advisory service experience. She most recently served as a Principal with Korn Ferry, driving the expansion and application of their Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored Women CEOs Speak research and furthering the firm’s work with client organizations to realize the full power and potential of their female talent. She is outspoken about covering topics like women in leadership and determining ways bias impacts organizations’ effectiveness in recruiting and optimizing talent.

Shannon spent the early part of her career specializing in financial officer recruitment. She then broadened into talent consulting, focusing on assessment, board effectiveness, inclusion, and diversity with Heidrick & Struggles. She then applied her experience in recruiting and management consulting to drive internal improvements with two primary objectives: winning in the market and delighting clients. Most recently, as Practice Management Director for both the firm’s CFO and CEO & Board Practices, Shannon led change efforts in processes, training, branding, and engagement execution.

What has fiercely driven Shannon for the past ten years in the industry has been a passion for finding ways to do this important work better and focusing more on the people vs. the transaction. Her mission is to find ways to uncover talent too often overlooked or discounted and realizing the power of diverse leadership teams.

Shannon received her J.D. from Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law and her B.S. from Northern Illinois University. She is an active member and a Class of 2012 alumna of Leadership Sandy Springs. She is on the advisory board of The Women’s Collective, bringing C-suite and other executive-level women leaders together around a mission of promoting and enhancing leaders focused on the workplace, education, and mentorship.

Principal Consultant

Dr. Bernard Ashby serves as a Principal Consultant for Yardstick Management. He was born and raised in South Florida by Caribbean parents who were able to instill in him strong qualities such as family values, a strong work ethic, and a love of serving others.

Bernard attended medical school at Cornell University, where he excelled academically, worked part-time as a skin bank technician, and still found time to volunteer at the local homeless shelter. He served as President of the Cornell chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), conducted cardiovascular research, was appointed as a student member of the medical school admissions committee, and co-founded the Weill Cornell Youth Scholars Program, a summer outreach program that educates, encourages, and helps to equip inner-city high school students for future success in academics. Bernard then went on to train at Columbia University Medical Center for an internship and residency in internal medicine. Bernard also participated in cardiovascular research and served as president of the Lindenbaum-Thompson Society. After residency, he was appointed assistant professor of Medicine and Hospitalist at Columbia. He obtained a Master’s degree in Public Policy at Princeton University while volunteering as a health policy advisor to the AARP in New Jersey. Bernard then completed his Cardiology Fellowship at George Washington University Hospital where he was elected Chief Fellow by faculty and co-fellows. Bernard also worked nights at the local Virginia hospital and completed a vascular medicine postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins. He is currently board certified in cardiology, vascular medicine, nuclear cardiology, vascular interpretation, and internal medicine. Bernard has since opened his own practice, Comprehensive Vascular Care. He is also currently a board member of Mount Sinai’s Clinical Integration Network and leading the development of Mount Sinai’s Health Disparities Program and Vascular Institute in addition to serving as the director of the Department of Vascular Medicine. Dr. Ashby is happy to be back home near family again in Florida. He is actively engaged in community activities such as the “My Future, My Choice Campaign” which is trying to address the rampant gun violence taking place in the inner-city. Recently, South Florida’s Legacy Magazine recognized him as a Top Black Healthcare Professional and one of the 50 Most Powerful Black Professionals in Business and Industry.

LinkedIn

Senior Consultant

Pasadena, California

Mona Khalil serves as a Senior Consultant for Yardstick Management. Prior to joining Yardstick, Mona Khalil worked at LinkedIn as a Senior Program Manager in Talent Acquisition on the Innovation and Solutions team.

Mona is a first-generation Guyanese-Egyptian American. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, focused on community and youth development work. Mona holds a B.A. in International Studies from the University of California- San Diego. She pursued her Executive MBA at St. Mary’s College of California and is currently attending an Inner MBA, Mindful Business program through New York University. In June 2021, Mona will be teaching a module for Bellarmine University W. Fielding Rubel of Business’s new leadership certificate program for Women of Color Entrepreneurs.

Mona’s previous work experience was at Tesla as a Senior Project Manager, Global Business Operations. She was the Founder and President of Tesla’s Intersectionality Employee Resource Group (ERG). The mission is to promote personal empowerment for individuals where the social categorization of (mixed) race, class, gender, age, sexuality, ability, and other characteristics meet. She is passionate about empowering employees to show up to work as their whole self without deconstructing their identity to achieve professional and social workplace equality.

In 2017, she published her first book of reflective poetry rooted in love and telling the story of her life, from childhood through the present day. I Write Letters In My Thoughts is a synoptic view into one person’s journey through love, life, and ultimately towards liberation. Her book is a testament to the power of storytelling as a historic healing method for communities who are often told to be quiet and patient. I Write Letters In My Thoughts allows us to realize that we are enough and that enough is enough; suffering is not our destiny, love is not impossible, and freedom is what we make it.

Mona resides in Pasadena, California where she grew up. Outside of professional interests, Mona enjoys writing poetry and spending time with family and friends.

Senior Consultant

Atlanta, Georgia

Melanie Calhoun serves as a Senior Consultant for Yardstick Management, supporting the diversity and inclusion line of business. With her expertise in marketing management and diversity and inclusion initiatives, Melanie helps organizations improve D&I strategies by conducting assessments, establishing clear and measurable D&I goals, and creating long-term roadmaps to address the structural inequality that may exist.

Before joining Yardstick, Melanie spent time as a researcher in the Relationships and Social Cognition Lab at the University of California, Berkeley Psychology Department. Under the leadership of Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, Ph.D., Melanie developed an active research interest in stigma, intergroup relations, and stereotyping. Much of her racism and bias research is informed by her experience working as a marketing executive for over fifteen years.

Before her work at UC Berkeley, she was Head of New Customer Acquisition and Experience for Invisalign® clear aligners at Align Technology. Under her leadership, Melanie launched new advertising campaigns to recruit new dentists to become providers. Before working at Align, Melanie spent time as the Senior Marketing Manager of Product Marketing for Vocera Communications. In her role, she oversaw competitive strategy. As Marketing Manager at Ecolab, she managed the Surgical Patient Care products, increasing sales to $12MM. She also spent time at Medtronic supporting surgical procedures in endovascular aortic aneurysm stent-graft repair, pediatric deformity spinal surgery, and neurostimulation for obesity and chronic stomach disorders. She received various awards for her leadership, including the Medtronic Emerging Leaders, and was one of the first participants in the Leadership Development Rotation Program.

Melanie is committed to her community and, through her leadership, has made a significant impact on women and children’s issues. She has held various positions in the Junior League of Atlanta and served on the Executive Board of the San Jose Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Currently, Melanie is a Board Member of the Atlanta Chapter of It’s My Birthday, Inc. and The Atlanta Birth Center.

Melanie earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida A&M University. She currently resides in Atlanta with her husband, two-year-old son, and newborn daughter. She is an avid reader, loves cooking, traveling, and yoga.