• We engaged Ritika after the strategic planning process for Bright Futures was complete to support communication, collaboration, and coordination with our early childhood partner Bright Beginnings. She supported us as leaders of both initiatives to continue to build our interpersonal and team relationships to support successful implementation of shared outcomes. Ritika supported the teams with frameworks, tools, and strategies for clear communication and accountability, including shepherding us through the development of a memorandum of understanding. Her skillful facilitation helped us unearth, reflect on, and address blind spots and challenges. Collective impact work is extremely difficult to do well. Ritika helped us to feel both held and pushed as she deftly and skillfully managed and supported us. This included making it clear when she felt we no longer needed her support. This is unique for a consultant and was much appreciated. The outcome has been leaders and teams that feel confident in their abilities and courageous enough to get into 'good and necessary trouble' together.

    Jackie Cruz, Executive Director | The Hartnell College Foundation (Anchor | Bright Futures)

    Francine Rodd, Executive Director | First 5 Monterey County, Co-Chair | Bright Beginnings & Steering Partner | Bright Futures

  • I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Ritika Kurup on several strategic initiatives over the last 15 years to address kindergarten, high school and college readiness. She has also been instrumental in improving equity outcomes for the sixteen public school districts in Montgomery County, Ohio. In 2024, Ritika facilitated the design of Sinclair Community College’s strategic priorities for the Office of College and Community Connections. Over the course of a year she led a cross-departmental coalition of staff and faculty to assess the progress of our equity initiatives and identify next steps to accelerate that progress over the next three years. Ritika’s leadership has led us in developing a strong foundation for advancing a climate of acceptance and inclusion among faculty, staff and students. Over my thirty-year career of leadership in education, Ritika is quite simply the best facilitator and team builder that I have encountered.

    Michael Carter

    Senior Advisor to the President, Sinclair Community College

  • Tony Amezcua

    Working with Ritika on our strategic plan was an exceptional experience. She brought deep knowledge, insight, and professionalism to the process, while also creating a safe and trusting space for our team to engage in honest and meaningful dialogue. Ritika consistently challenged our thinking in thoughtful ways, helping us stretch our vision and approach beyond what we imagined possible. Her support extended well beyond the strategic planning process, she guided us through our StriveTogether Systems Change Assessment and helped us build a clear and actionable one-year implementation plan to bring our strategy to life. Ritika’s commitment, care, and above-and-beyond support made her not only a valued consultant but also a true partner and friend to our team. We are incredibly grateful for her contributions and wholeheartedly recommend her to any organization seeking transformative, strategic, and heartfelt guidance.

    TONY AMEZCUA

    Director, Bright Futures Educational Partnership

  • Headshot of Christian Motley

    When RFA was asked to create a new collaborative charged with scaling high impact tools and resources for local leaders,   we envisioned a results-oriented program rooted in trust. I knew from the beginning that Ritika Kurup was the right facilitation partner to call. She is a results leader who listens intentionally, thinks strategically and ensures the inclusion of all voices. Ritika has been our essential partner to bring our community of practice to life.

    CHRISTIAN MOTLEY
    Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer, Results for America

  • For almost as long as I’ve supported outcomes-focused partnerships, I’ve had the privilege of working with Ritika. Ritika has been a coach, helping me to diagnose complex issues and understand what roles I need to play. She’s co-designed and delivered training for teams that I’ve cared for. She’s visited with partnerships that I’ve supported to learn about our work and offered reflections on our progress toward racial and ethnic equity. She’s been an astute observer of what groups have needed, and has stepped in to name it. In each of the roles she has held, Ritika has been calm, kind, honest, and laser-focused on results. She has shared work, been deeply accountable for doing what she’s said she’ll do, and taught me a lot about how to share work and ask meaningful questions. And she is fun and really good at asking for and incorporating feedback!

    DANYA PASTUSZEK

    President and CEO, Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement

  • Working with Ritika Kurup over this past year has been one of the best business decisions I have ever made. She has become a valuable partner to our rapidly expanding nonprofit. We have engaged with her on a few different levels: as a retreat facilitator, a consultant to our new leadership team, a coach to individual directors, a touchstone for me, and as a guide as we navigated the terrain of identifying and quantifying performance metrics. She has formalized our use of several tools that have become part of our organizational DNA, such as B/ART, and with her strong and steady hand, led us through the process of creating a comprehensive annual operating plan, training us along the way how to conduct this work on our own in the future. Ritika is kind, compassionate, and empathetic coupled with a fierce ability to keep our dynamic team focused, accountable, and on track. I will be sorry when our work together ends, and yet, she has made a huge imprint on our organization that will be felt well into the future.

    JENNIFER C. JACKSON
    CEO, Arise Collective

  • Ritika is an incredibly skilled facilitator who moved our group through a deliberate and results-oriented process with efficiency and professionalism. She guided our process beautifully and kept us accountable for meeting targeted outcomes. Her pre-work, research, and follow-up notes were extremely thorough and clear. We were amazed at the progress we made in such a short time, particularly given some difficult initial group conflicts. I would recommend Ritika without hesitation!

    JENNIFER D. BARAHONA, LCSW
    Former CEO, Norwalk ACTS

  • test

    Connecticut Health Foundation sought Ritika's expertise to guide a Health Equity Collaborative through an emergent learning process and a two-day planning retreat. It was her first time working with our collaborative and the first time collaborative members had gone through this kind of learning and planning. Ritika was meticulous and thoughtful in her preparation for the sessions. During her facilitation, her empathy and advanced listening skills built a trusting space for us to get hard work accomplished. We are eager to collaborate with Ritika again, and are thankful that she is using her unique skillset to advance equity!

    ELLEN CARTER
    Vice President of Program, Connecticut Health Foundation

  • Ritika helped us develop and facilitate a three-part session focused on helping our community better understand systems change work. She was a fantastic partner who demonstrated a genuine interest in understanding our desires/needs as a community and enfolding that into the curriculum. She also served as a coach to our planning committee- her questions and feedback pushed us to test our own assumptions and ultimately created a higher-quality program. Working with Ritika was a true pleasure. Given the opportunity, I would work with her again and again. She makes teams better!

    LAUREN KING, PhD
    Former Director of Training and Evaluation, ImpactTulsa