About Us
Our Story
Work in Progress Consulting started informally in 2016 as a community-based think tank, when Rachel Kacenjar owned a small retail business and noticed that it was difficult to find options for affordable support to help her with growth and change management as she scaled her business nationally. After working with a few professionals who were not aligned with her progressive values, she decided that she’d turn to her values-aligned community of small business owners to work in collaboration on shared issues. She learned that problem solving from multi-perspective lived experience was vastly more helpful to everyone involved, as opposed to hiring someone for just a couple hours who didn’t understand where she was coming from or attempting to find solutions in a vacuum.
From this practice, Work in Progress was born as her peers participated in group problem solving to find solutions to her finance, strategy, HR process, and tax questions.
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In 2018, after selling her business and going back to nonprofit directorship, she noticed a similar kind of gap in support in the nonprofit sector. Many nonprofits in the coalitions and partnerships that she collaborated with were not provided with the tools to build infrastructure, process, and procedure; instead they were told to diversify programming by funders who did not understand that without intentional culture and process building, no organization would be sustainable. After working in operations, HR, finance, and fiscal sponsorship, it was clear to her that many organizations would benefit from think-tank style options for change management and capacity building that were affordable. She knew that she needed to tackle the work in partnership with trusted experts, so she approached Meredith L King, who had led her through the valuation process of selling her business, and Leslie Wright, an organizer and educator who had worked with her in community for years, to join her in this new era of consulting with mutual team support. Much to her delight, both colleagues accepted her proposal, and together they became the first three members of Work in Progress.
From there the business grew from three people handling piecemeal consulting work, to a team of 9, working to slowly build infrastructure in a new way with their growth, eventually making decisions by modified consensus, supporting each other with resources and collaboration, intentionally being paid the same hourly rate for work to attempt to build a flattened-(ish) structure based in mutual support.
Work in Progress is quite literally that; a work in progress. We know that we have a long way to go, and that we don’t find the best version of structure or strategy that works for the most people without an iterative process that includes communal support and care. So here we are, working on ourselves while we work with our clients, growing and learning, and sharing what we’ve learned every day. We hope to bring the spirit of progress, iterative process, community, and curiosity to everything that we do.
Learn more about:
Our Team
Ginny Nemchick
(she/they)
Ginny is a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit professional with more than 15 years of experience creating and implementing programs and policies and supervising both staff and volunteers in the context of a healthy, supportive management style.
She is experienced in topics including strategic and organizational planning, human resources, operations management, project management, grant writing and oversight, and communications.
Her professional experience spans fields including higher education, social services, LGBTQIA+ issues, volunteer services, event planning, youth education and mentorship, entrepreneurship, and more. She is particularly passionate about doing work for organizations that support women, queer people, and children. Ginny holds a B.A. from Washington & Jefferson College in English with a focus in Gender Studies, and an MBA from New England College with a focus in Nonprofit Leadership. Her work prioritizes equity, lifelong learning, community and volunteer-based programs, team decision making and ongoing communication.
Jessica Yox
(she/her)
Jessica is a Cleveland-based, travel-loving entrepreneur with a decade of experience in consulting, education, and accounting. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the State University of New York at Buffalo before accepting a position with PwC as a Federal Human Capital Consultant in McLean, Virginia. Next, Jessica pivoted her career to pursue Teach for America, with the opportunity to teach Chemistry and Physical Science to high schoolers in the City of Cleveland.
After teaching for three years, Jessica was promoted to an administrative role for three additional years before leaving education to obtain a Masters of Accountancy from Cleveland State University (CSU). It was during her time at CSU that she started advising small and medium sized businesses in a variety of industries on finance, accounting, and tax matters. Currently, Jessica provides business planning and accounting services, as well as tax preparation and tax planning services to small businesses and non-profit organizations with a specialization in streamlining accounting system processes. When she is not working, she loves relaxing in adirondack chairs, pet sitting, and talking about retirement planning. She also co-owns a small business in Cleveland, Two One Fix Bicycle.
Leslie Wright
(she/her)
Leslie is a proud graduate of an HBCU, Hampton University, where she earned a degree in theater with an emphasis on directing. She has worked in nonprofit organizations for over a decade, in roles focused on on training, education, team management, leadership development, Human Resources, and creating systems and strategy. Leslie has extensive experience in coaching for public speaking and is also a seasoned blogger and host of virtual events.
Her skills include teaching, facilitation, mediation, professional development guidance, curriculum development, strategic planning, and creating effective evaluation and feedback processes. Recently, Leslie has worked with the HFLA and expanded her skillset to include personal finance which she teaches to community members seeking to improve their credit and learn how to budget. Leslie is a firm believer in knowledge = power and loves sharing knowledge with her community.
Mahogany Thaxton
(she/her)
Mahogany Thaxton is a Pittsburgh-based development and information professional with 15 years’ experience building relationships, creating fundraising, donor stewardship and engagement strategies for small grassroots and large well-resourced organizations. No matter the organization, donor, or staff backgrounds, she believes raising money is rooted in building relationships first. Her commitment to racial and wealth equity in her personal life extends to reimagining what philanthropy can look like when built on organization and donor partnerships, not power.
Her skills include helping organizations build and maintain their individual donor base, create fundraising and donor stewardship plans, and implement strong donor data and information management practices that match their organizational needs and staff capacity. Her experience has shown her that small to mid-sized organizations and organizations led by or serving BIPOC individuals receive the least amount of individual donations and are the organizations she is particularly interested in supporting. She’s currently pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Sciences, focusing on the value of librarianship and library skills within nonprofits and community archives and their unique needs for information and data organization.
Meredith King
(she/her)
Meredith is a professional problem-solver with over 19 years of experience helping organizations meet their unique goals in challenging circumstances. She is a nonprofit organizational expert with a background in community organizing, and expansive skills in strategic planning and governance. Meredith frequently uses the lessons of community organizing in her approach as a consultant, including, using resources from a wide variety of sources to work through problems creatively and infusing equity and inclusion into the culture and policies of organizations.
Meredith’s other specialties include change management, data analysis, program development, grant review, standards and policies, and facilitation. She also excels at breaking a big picture strategy down to the logistical details of execution. Meredith holds a B.A. in Feminist Studies (with honors) from Stanford University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management, with a focus on Strategy and Nonprofit Management. She is also a member of the National Association of Parliamentarians and is a working artist.
Rachel Kacenjar
(she/her)
With two decades of diverse experience spanning nonprofit directorship, capacity building, people operations, development, philanthropy, and small business leadership, Rachel brings a wealth of expertise to her consulting clients. She holds a Masters in Nonprofit Organizations and Public Administration from Cleveland State University, complemented by a BA in Management and Entrepreneurship from the New School for Social Research. She holds a SHRM-CP certification, and over the past five years, has dedicated herself to teaching people-centered coursework in Human Resources functions. Rachel's focus has predominantly been in Reproductive Rights and Human Rights in the nonprofit sector, and in 2023, she retired from a 16-year-long career in fashion design and product development.
In 2020, she co-authored the groundbreaking Anti-Racist Human Resources Guidebook, followed by Reframing Pride: The LGBTQ+ HR Guide in 2021. Both publications have garnered widespread acclaim, with thousands of copies sold. Her innovative policy-building frameworks that center the humanity in Human Resources have been adopted by hundreds of workplaces. Rachel is deeply committed to operationalizing values, emphasizing inclusivity and input from all levels of the organization, and coaching leaders to practice transparency and direct communication. Her coaching style and People Operations approach revolve around trauma-informed Human Resources practices. To Rachel, whether it’s custom designing clothing or workplace policy, she believes that meeting people where they are at is always the best place to start.
Samara Knox
(she/her)
Samara has over 23 years of experience in Reproductive Health and Justice with a focus on training and managing front line clinic staff. For over a decade, she worked as the Director of Patient Services for Preterm, a nonprofit, feminist abortion clinic. Samara oversaw hiring, orientation and continuing professional development for nearly 100 of Preterm’s Patient Advocates. She has provided mediation, conflict resolution, counseling, and coaching for staff members at all career levels and walks of life.
Samara has been involved in several Reproductive Justice leadership initiatives such as the 2017-2018 Movement Makers cohort with NNAF, the Rockwood Leadership Fellowship, and has presented on whole- person counseling techniques at Abortion Care Network and National Abortion Federation conferences. Her nationally recognized training program for non-judgmental, patient-centered counseling has been used in dozens of workplaces. Some of her most notable trainings have been 3-day intensive "training the trainer" courses with topics such as: preparing leaders for community engagement, counseling techniques, active listening and proactive communication, anti-oppression and privilege trainings, and conflict management and resolution. With her vast experience in hiring, training, and coaching, she continues to hold space as a trusted leader and advocate in the nonprofit and Reproductive Justice ecosystem.
Sara Ismail-Beigi Bartlett
(she/her)
Sara has over two decades of professional experience in clinical, corporate, and nonprofit settings. She utilizes her diverse skill set and knowledge of frameworks to make well-paced change possible. With specific expertise including nonprofit management, customer service/call center management, executive education, recruitment, and clinical trial management, she is able to work between front-line, technical, and executive audiences with ease.
Sara obtained her Bachelors in Management with a concentration in Organizational Behavior and Minor in Entrepreneurship from Case Western Reserve University and her Masters in Organizational Development from Bowling Green State University. Additionally, she carries certifications in Emotional and Social Competence Inventory from Korn Ferry, DISC and EQ Certifications from TTI Success Insights, Fundamentals of Mediation from Cleveland Mediation Center, and Non-Violent Crisis Intervention from Crisis Prevention Institute.
Tara Shuai Ellison
(she/her)
As an advocate for human and empathy-centered systems and processes, Tara Shuai Ellison has dedicated her career to developing people, departments, and organizations to their fullest potential and greatest impact. With more than 18 years of nonprofit management, organizational development, human resources, operations, and financial management experience in movements for social, racial, gender, LGBTQIA+ and economic justice, Tara loves helping nonprofits and the people powering them thrive to do their best work.
Tara has served in numerous roles in many different organizations on the vanguard of social change as a staff member, board member, and a consultant. She has scaled multi-million dollar organizations exponentially, set up new corporate entities for organizations looking to maximize their impact, led culture change work in person and virtually, and has created and implemented groundbreaking Human Resources policies and practices for organizations looking to align their values into their operations. Tara is passionate about transforming systems, organizations, and people and envisioning the future of work.
