Since earning a communications and marketing degree from Loyola University New Orleans in 2003,  Natalie Root has collaborated with nonprofit organizations and philanthropic foundations of all sizes, sectors, business stages, and geographic locations in various director capacities, both in-house and as a consultant. At her core, she is a social entrepreneur. Seeing the need for senior-level expertise coupled with identifying the rapidly increasing development employee turnover rate, she founded The Root Agency. She has consistently been invited to speak and exhibit at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America National Conference and Habitat for Humanity.