Recent News

Sue Lacy, Managing Partner
slacy@roundriverconsulting.com

Sue has worked with dozens of non-profit organizations, public agencies, civic and elected leaders to plan and implement strategic planning processes and mobilize community campaigns. She has trained hundreds of leaders and staff to apply inclusion principles and behaviors to advance culture change initiatives that enhance organizational performance and cultural competency. Her work continues a strong track record of engaging citizens across the country to impact policy and decision-making.

Her work began with a statewide citizen organization in Ohio where she worked in urban neighborhoods and rural communities to engage citizens to address consumer and environmental issues. She worked in Cleveland as director of a local neighborhood development corporation to support economic and community development, as an aide to a city councilman, director of a city-wide community initiative to improve race relations, and as founding director of a faith-based community organization that led a campaign to transform the governance structure of Cleveland Public Schools. Her work also led to the largest fine leveraged by the State of Ohio at that time to address the environmental impact of a hazardous waste site in northwestern Ohio. Sue also served as national training director a national network of faith-based community organizations.

 

Katie Fry, M.Ed., Partner
kfry@roundriverconsulting.com

Katie’s experience as an educator, trainer and researcher led her to create a consulting firm with Sue Lacy in 2002. Her expertise lies in creating training programs for leadership development, organizational culture change and community engagement.

Currently, Katie is a senior associate of America Speaks, a national non-partisan, non-profit organization that engages citizens in public decision-making that impacts their lives. As a professional educator Katie taught in public schools, supervised student teachers, wrote curriculum for Kent State University and taught in Developmental Education and Upward Bound programs. Through her work as a medical trainer, Katie developed curriculum for community educators and a six-month training program for a medical staff. In the broader field of education, she served as Director of Religious Education at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron. As Education Director for Mustard Seed Market, she created a cooking school and community wellness education program. Her educational research supported the development of an award-winning community collaborative called This City Reads!

Katie leads RRC’s work with clients to design civic and community engagement programs. She has conducted numerous training programs for businesses, organizations and learning institutions designed to develop leadership and maximize organizational potential.

 

Mayra Porrata, M.Ed., Senior Associate
mporrata@roundriverconsulting.com

Mayra joined Round River Consulting in 2005. Her multi-cultural background and multi-disciplinary training bring a unique and valuable perspective to Round River’s work. Mayra's professional background includes the conception, planning, implementation and evaluation of successful projects in technology integration, curriculum development, employee training and development, community relations, communications, marketing, and community health.

She led Round River Consulting’s work with Summa Health Systems to conduct 8 focus groups that led to recommendations to better meet the needs of a diverse patient base. Mayra also took the lead on the development of a marketing plan for Canton Community Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Clinic in Stark County.

Mayra’s current projects include: teaching at Kent State University, publishing, community health needs assessments, and improving community health and consumer health literacy. Mayra holds a Bachelor of Arts in business management and a Master of Education in health education and promotion.

 

Charles Thomas, Associate
cthomas@roundriverconsulting.com

Charles Thomas has been a Research Biostatistician with Case Western Reserve University’s Center for Health Care Research and Policy for 17 years. His expertise lies in statistical procedures such as Propensity and Bootstrap methods. In addition, he has presented these subjects in seminars and workshops at various professional conferences (see chrp.org seminar archives).

During the last 5 years Mr. Thomas learned how to apply Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques to study the prevalence and incidence of disease in certain geographical areas as well as apply them in less traditional ways such as calculating the distances between homeless shelters and the nearest emergency rooms. He is a user of several programming languages and is a SAS (Statistical Analysis System) certified professional programmer.

Mr. Thomas has been published in various well-respected journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neurology, and the Journal of Mixed Methods Research.

 

Hubert Morgan, Associate
hmorgan@roundriverconsulting.com

Hubert Morgan has 33 years of experience in regional and long-range planning. Currently concentrating on civic democracy, his passion is public participation. Mr. Morgan specializes in reaching out to all demographics, especially those that have been historically underrepresented or disenfranchised in traditional planning processes. He is recognized throughout the Chicago region for his work on the foundational outreach of Common Ground and the resulting 2040 Regional Framework Plan (2040 RFP). Mr. Morgan’s primary objective is to ensure that everyone affected is involved throughout the planning process. To this end, he designs strategies that help communities develop their positions and articulate their concerns in the planning process.

Mr. Morgan currently serves as Public Involvement Coordinator at the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission where he is responsible for the design, development, and execution of the agency’s public participation goals and the incorporation of the public’s input into the 2040 Comprehensive Regional Plan. Previously, he served as Principal Planner at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning where he staffed the Citizen’s Advisory Committee and completed the agency’s Public Participation Plan. He also served as the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) as the Program Manager of the 2040 Regional Framework Plan . He serves as an Associate with AmericaSpeaks where he recently managed outreach and logistics operations for the Chicago Our Budget, Our Economy site. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois, CUPPA Master’s Program for a graduate planning class in Public Participation.