Stephanie Zumbahlen

Head of Operations

Stephanie Zumbahlen is the Head of Operations at CALSTART, where she leads efforts to strengthen organizational operations, modernize systems and processes, and build the infrastructure needed to support CALSTART’s continued growth and impact. She brings extensive experience leading operational transformation across mission-driven and complex organizations and is recognized for her ability to connect people, processes, technology, and data to drive change and turn strategy into execution. 

Prior to joining CALSTART, Stephanie held operations leadership roles at the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), supporting a portfolio of clean transportation and distributed energy programs. Her work focused on strengthening operations in financial management and resource planning, performance management, organizational visibility, cross-functional coordination, and improved systems and processes. She helped establish scalable operating practices that increased accuracy and transparency, strengthened financial performance, and enabled more informed decision-making. 

Stephanie’s career also spans the healthcare and nuclear power industries, giving her experience operating in complex and highly regulated environments where discipline, risk management, and cross-functional collaboration are critical. Across industries, she has led initiatives in business process transformation, enterprise systems, financial operations, organizational planning, and technology enablement, with a focus on simplifying complexity and building scalable solutions.  

At CALSTART, Stephanie is focused on creating an integrated operational foundation that connects people, systems, processes, and data across the organization—strengthening how teams work together, improving organizational visibility and decision-making, and enabling CALSTART to execute its strategic priorities and expand its impact in the clean transportation industry. 

Education & Certifications 

• Bachelor of Applied Science in Behavioral Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston 

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification 

• Project Management Office Certified Professional (PMO-CP) Certification 

• Lean Six Sigma Certification 

• AI Prompt Engineering Certification 

Work Approach 

  Stephanie believes strong operations should make it easier for people to do their best work. Her approach is rooted in connecting people with the right systems, processes, information, and organizational structures to reduce unnecessary complexity, create greater clarity across teams, and drive efficiency in everyday work. 

She brings a collaborative and solutions-oriented leadership style to operational transformation, working across functions to understand challenges, identify root causes, and design practical solutions that can scale with the organization. She believes sustainable growth requires more than adding new systems or processes—it requires aligning people, technology, data, and strategy around a shared way of working. 

 At the center of Stephanie’s approach is a commitment to continuous improvement and thoughtful change. She focuses on building operational environments that are efficient without being rigid, structured without creating unnecessary bureaucracy, and capable of evolving alongside the organization. Her goal is to create an operational foundation that allows teams to execute effectively, leaders to make informed decisions, and organizations to translate ambitious strategies into measurable and lasting impact.