Thoughtful partners for meaningful change
Mission-driven organizations are working to solve some of our communities’ most complex challenges. That work requires more than good intentions. It requires good information, strong relationships, thoughtful leadership, and the ability to learn and adapt along the way.
Open Road Inclusive Community Consulting partners with human service organizations to understand what is happening, learn from the people closest to the work, and turn evidence and insight into meaningful action. Whether we are evaluating a program, facilitating organizational learning, engaging stakeholders, analyzing policy, or developing leaders, we bring curiosity, rigor, compassion, and a deeply collaborative approach to the work.
Organizations are systems, but they are systems made up of people.
Strategies, policies, programs, and organizational structures matter. So do relationships, emotions, identity, experiences, leadership, and the ways people respond to stress, uncertainty, learning, and change. That’s why our work draws from both.
The Science of People
Human Development · Neuroscience · Relationships · Leadership · Wellbeing · Lived Experience
We consider how people experience systems, relationships, learning, stress, belonging, leadership, and change.
The Science of Systems
Evaluation · Implementation Science · Organizational Change · Policy · Systems Thinking · Continuous Improvement
We examine the structures, practices, policies, resources, feedback loops, and conditions that shape how organizations function and whether change can take hold.
Where they come together
Understanding one without the other can leave important parts of the picture missing. Open Road brings these perspectives together to help organizations understand not only what needs to change, but what will help meaningful change take root and last.
Principles that guide every partnership
Our methods may change from project to project, but several principles guide how we approach every partnership.
Evidence should inform, not replace, human judgment.
Data can help us see patterns, challenge assumptions, and make better decisions. But numbers never tell the whole story. We bring evidence together with professional wisdom, context, lived experience, and the perspectives of the people closest to the work.
People closest to challenges must help shape solutions.
Meaningful stakeholder engagement is more than asking for feedback after decisions have already been made. We create opportunities for people who experience, provide, and lead services to contribute their knowledge to understanding problems and developing solutions.
Kindness is a strategy, not simply a value.
Compassion, curiosity, respect, and dignity are sometimes treated as “soft skills.” We see them as essential organizational practices. How people experience their workplace affects how they lead, collaborate, learn, respond to change, and ultimately support others.
Learning is always part of the work.
Evaluation, reflection, and continuous improvement aren’t signs that something has gone wrong. They are how healthy organizations learn. We help organizations notice what’s working, understand what isn’t, test new approaches, and keep moving forward.
Lasting change is created together.
The best consulting relationships don’t create dependence on consultants. They strengthen an organization’s own knowledge, skills, confidence, and capacity. We work alongside our partners to develop approaches that are useful, practical, and sustainable long after an engagement ends.
Amanda J. Rich, Ph.D.
Founder & Principal Consultant
Amanda Rich is a researcher, evaluator, educator, trainer, and consultant with more than 20 years of experience working alongside people with disabilities, families, human service professionals, leaders, and community organizations.
She founded Open Road Inclusive Community Consulting around a belief that has emerged repeatedly throughout her career: meaningful change requires understanding both people and the systems surrounding them.
Amanda’s work spans program evaluation, organizational learning and change, disability services, policy and systems analysis, trauma-informed and nervous system-wise leadership, stakeholder engagement, and workforce wellbeing. She is particularly interested in translating research and evidence into practical approaches that help organizations build healthier teams, make better decisions, and create services and systems that more fully support human dignity, autonomy, and wellbeing.
Her perspective has been shaped by many different seats at the table—as a direct support professional, family advocate, researcher, program evaluator, policy analyst, consultant, trainer, and university instructor. Those experiences have reinforced the importance of listening carefully to multiple perspectives and recognizing that expertise comes in many forms.
Her scholarship includes research on trauma-informed care, organizational change, disability services, program design and evaluation, and disability advocacy. See publications →
The right expertise for the work
Complex challenges often benefit from multiple perspectives. Open Road collaborates with a trusted network of researchers, educators, evaluators, facilitators, and subject-matter experts whose expertise can be brought together based on the needs of each project.
Laura Evans, Ph.D.
Research & Training Associate
Dr. Laura Evans is a Teaching Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State Brandywine with expertise in quantitative and qualitative research, relational processes, mindfulness and wellness, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She holds a master’s degree in Family Studies with a concentration in Couple and Family Therapy and a Ph.D. in Family Science from the University of Maryland.
Nikki DiGregorio, Ph.D.
Research & Evaluation Associate
Dr. Nikki DiGregorio is an Associate Professor of Family Science at Towson University whose work brings together program evaluation, educational and social policy, family systems, and equity. Their research examines how individuals, families, and communities—particularly those historically underrepresented in research and policy—navigate complex systems and institutions.
Monica Mesa-Alvarez, Ph.D.
Research & Evaluation Associate
Dr. Monica Mesa-Alvarez is a Research and Development Associate with the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities. Their expertise includes organizational evaluation, measurement development, evidence-based practice implementation, and examining alignment between organizational values and everyday practice.
Nicole LeBlanc
Accessibility Specialist · Peer Advocate · Evaluation & Policy Consultant
Nicole LeBlanc is a nationally recognized disability advocate, accessibility specialist, and policy professional with extensive experience advancing the inclusion, self-determination, and leadership of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She brings a powerful combination of lived experience and professional expertise to Open Road’s evaluation, policy analysis, and accessibility work.
You don’t need to have all the answers
Or even know exactly what kind of support you need before reaching out. Those are exactly the kinds of questions we like to explore. Tell us what you’re working on. We’ll start there.
Schedule a Free ConsultationSometimes the starting point is simply a question
- How do we know whether this is working?
- How can we better support our staff?
- What are the people we serve trying to tell us?
- Why isn’t this change taking hold?
- Where do we go from here?