Marty McConnell -- strategy and language maven, ASG co-founder. Marty’s first job was in the mail room of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, during the summer she also learned to drive. While she has never lost her love for organizing office supplies, she did attempt to escape the family legacy of nonprofit work by spending several years as a public relations consultant and then pursuing her MFA in creative writing. Despite these efforts, she brings to ASG years of experience running strategy and resource development programs for nonprofits and facilitating trainings and workshops for youth and adults in positions including Director of Resource Development at Alternatives, Inc., Director of Strategic Advancement at the Partnership for After School Education, and Program Director of Urban Word NYC. 

She helps groups and individuals envision and build powerful, planful, purpose-driven organizations and lives. Grounded in the tenets of Appreciative Inquiry and more than 20 years of experience with and within nonprofit organizations ranging from front-line roles to executive leadership teams to coaching and consulting, Marty leads projects from a values-centric, equity-focused perspective. Her expertise in strategic planning, team culture transformation, organizational language development and alignment, and systems development make her a valued resource for organizations large and small in a range of fields.

Since co-founding Appreciative Solutions Group in 2014, she has worked with organizations nationwide to assess and unify around their true needs, purpose, and direction; create and operationalize actionable, aspirational plans and systems; build meaningful connection between people, teams, and organizations; and prepare thoughtfully for and move smoothly through leadership transitions.

Along with her practical, lived understanding of how teams and organizations function at their best and their worst, Marty brings to bear on her work the creative force of her professional writing practice as well as her studies in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy and other human growth-focused methodologies.

She is a certified facilitator for racial healing circles through the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) initiative, and continues to co-facilitate the Critical Conversations @ Work: Anti-Racism process which she co-created in 2020 through the Chicago Poetry Center.

David McConnell -- financial analyst, coach and advisor, faux curmudgeon. David is a founder and Board chair of the Back Office Cooperative, a collaborative venture that leverages scale and best practices to drive down administrative and other costs for nonprofits. As Chief Financial Officer of One Hope United (OHU), a multi-state human services agency that serves 10,000 children and families each year, he restructured financial management and upgraded staff qualifications, significantly reduced costs through outsourcing accounting and related functions, simplified the budget process to increase accountability, and led the acquisition of four early childhood centers. He played a key role in the start-up of one of the first “pay for success” social impact bond ventures in the country.

Prior to joining OHU, David was the Senior Vice President for Administration at the Gateway Foundation, where he led the creation of a sustainable organizational infrastructure.  Also at Gateway, David improved processes and controls resulting in a 95% reduction in bad debts.  Earlier in his career, David was the Chief Financial Officer of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI), where he introduced his daughter Marty to her future career. While at LSSI, David chaired a number of administrative/financial negotiation committees between the private sector and state government.  In his 46 years in the human services field, David has led or otherwise played a vital role in eight mergers. David’s career in social serves began in the Boston area, where he worked in a finance capacity at the local Goodwill Industries, Boston YWCA and Cambridge Public Schools. 

Mariah Neuroth — staff development and systems guru, ASG co-founder. Mariah is the extroverted half of the ASG co-founding team. She brings to her work over a decade of experience as a non-profit executive, strategy consultant, professional development trainer, executive coach, program developer, project manager and event planner.

She began her nonprofit career working with refugee youth through the organization now known as RefugeeOne. She helped to build from its inception the Interfaith Youth Core, where as Senior Program Director she created curricula, managed an exponentially growing staff, and traveled the world with young people establishing meaningful connections across lines of ethnicity, faith, and background. As Chief Program Officer at Umoja Student Development Corporation and Producing Director at Young Chicago Authors, she built powerful teams and the systems to support them while developing and implementing innovative platforms for young people to grow, express themselves, and exercise their power. As the Chicago Reader’s Director of Innovation, she guided the visioning, development, and implementation of new projects and systems to support the organization’s growth and thriving through its transition from a for-profit to a non-profit.

Her work sits at the intersection of culture and community, impacting staff, talent, spaces, programs, and events with those values.  She works alongside cultural institutions, mission driven companies, artists and musicians, and event spaces to build authentic connections among clients, staff, participants, donors, communities, and the missions that unite them.

Through Mariah’s work with ASG, organizations have delved deep into the questions of what allows their staff to succeed, and used that information to create systems, policies, and structures. She has led organization-wide initiatives to reduce silos among teams and departments, piloted multi-year citywide projects using the arts to bring people together, helped organizations identify and live out their core values, coached individuals into unforeseen levels of productivity and effectiveness in their work, and deepened understanding within and among teams to maximize their functioning. 

Gregory Geffrard — space-holder extraordinaire, critical conversations wizard. Educator, scholar, activist, actor, and facilitator Gregory Geffrard is dedicated to the empowerment of historically dehumanized populations and the creation of opportunities for radical joy. Since moving to Chicago in 2012, he has dedicated his time and energy to decolonizing spaces and leading conversations around true equity in institutions, organizations, and their leadership. He has partnered with the Chicago Inclusion Project, Steppenwolf Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Old Town School of Folk Music, and Chicago Arts Partnership in Education to facilitate challenging conversations, create curriculum and formulate initiatives to aid in the creation of brave spaces and the development of the systems and commitments needed to maintain them. 

Ruby Western -- graphic design goddess. Ruby is a classically trained visual artist who studied painting at Smith College. After graduating, she began making graphics for friends and odd jobs. She worked as New York Times bestselling author Amy Krouse Rosenthal's assistant and collaborator from 2013-2017, where she honed skills as a graphic artist and gained knowledge of the book world. In 2016, she began freelancing in earnest. Her fresh approach to design, talent and dedication to translating client’s ideas into visually striking, effective materials has served organizations ranging from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago to the Law Offices of Jason B. Rosenthal, from Jameson Loves Danger pet supplies and grooming to Howard Brown Health Center.