Transformative Concepts Consulting Group is a partnership and collaboration of Independent Consultants offering assistance and services to individuals, organizations, and communities to build long-term strategies for development, at home and abroad. Each consultant brings a unique set of experience and skills to assist in building sustainable businesses, organizations, and communities. Consultants work independently or in partnership to cover a full range of organizational needs.
As an organizational development (OD) consulting firm, we specialize in strategic planning, performance management, process improvement, and leadership development for the nonprofit, and public sectors, including human services and social services organizations. Our primary interests and focus are more specifically on community-based grassroots organizations, organizers, and initiatives that are seeking firm footing to move forward on those social issues most important to them.
Our mission is to help organizations operate more effectively so they can better reach their goals and accomplish their missions. Having served in nonprofit and social sector leadership, our highly trained consultants brings a first-hand understanding of the opportunities and challenges organizations face.
Our process focuses on each organization’s people, planning, and processes, driving better performance. We specialize in:
- Performance management & performance metrics
- Process improvement & workflow mapping
- Program evaluation & performance measurement
- Strategic planning & balanced scorecard
- Operational excellence & Baldrige assessments
- Leadership training & employee development
- Change management & business process reengineering
- Organizational development & human resources management
Our collaborative approach begins by establishing goals, identifying key stakeholders, and getting to work quickly on an effective action plan. We are committed to helping nonprofit leaders build a financially sustainable organization that fulfills its social mission without compromising core values.
Dr. Maaskelah K. Thomas, Organizational Capacity Building Consultant and Principal Consultant at Transformative Concepts. Dr. Thomas has worked for over 25 years with community-serving organizations and agencies. A native Wichita, Kansan, her work has consisted of building, developing and sustaining partnerships and collaborative efforts to leverage resources. Her prior work in municipal government and with Wichita State University’s Center for Community Support and Research, allowed Dr. Thomas to assist in building the capacity of communities by facilitating intergenerational civic involvement and lifelong learning opportunities. 
Dr. Thomas’ work includes assisting The African American Council of Elders ~ Wichita/Sedgwick County with ongoing organizational development work, including coordination of the Digital Elders project, the Circle of Sharing Time Banking project and the Village Round Table web portal; assisting the Kansas African American Affairs Commission with its statewide Community Mobilization Project related to its State of African Americans in Kansas Indices research; Urban League of Kansas’ Strategic Planning; coordinating the Wichita Youth Empowerment Project, a collaborative of youth development organizations; the Compassion Kansas Capacity Building Project, serving non-profit organizations throughout Kansas; and numerous other organizational capacity building projects for local and statewide non-profits.
She is an active member of the American Evaluation Association and the Social Psychology Network, and provides outcome-based evaluation and project management services to not-for-profit enterprises.
Dr. Thomas holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Management and Organizational Development, a Masters in Adult Education, and a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Development. A scholar-practitioner, Dr. Thomas is the Principal Consultant for Transformative Concepts Consulting Group and is also an Assistant Professor of Organizational Psychology in the Doctor of Management Program at Colorado Technical University and Ethics at the University of Phoenix.
Melody McCray-Miller, Policy and Advocacy Consultant. Melody McCray-Miller has served the community in multiple capacities and always leads with the guiding principles of a strong commitment to community service and a belief in people having a voice in their own destiny. Ms. McCray-Miller served as a State Representative for the 89th House District from 2005 to 2013. Prior to running for State Representative, McCray-Miller served as the first female African American to represent the 4th District on the Board of Sedgwick County Commissioners.
Ms. McCray-Miller successfully championed reforms in prevention, early childhood education, and juvenile justice system as a legislator and most recently is championing juvenile court reforms in the 18th Judicial District as well as changes in the standing practices surrounding USD #259 Disciplinary Practices including the zero tolerance policy.
Ms. McCray-Miller is a consultant working with the American Institute for Research, national and locally with the Kansas Advisory Committee, an affiliate of the Kansas Health Foundation’s Visioneering Health Alliance. As a seasoned public policy maker with expertise at both the state and local level, McCray-Miller is keenly adept at identifying and understanding the steps involved in public policy making and is committed to increasing the participating role of “community” in public policy making and community engagement. McCray-Miller’s experiences also include former educator, where she developed a passion for positive youth development. Ms. McCray-Miller holds a BA, Psychology, and Comprehensive Teaching Certificate. Ms. McCray-Miller, serves in numerous leadership roles locally and nationally. She also serves on numerous boards and committees.
Wakeelah T Martinez, Founding Director of Wakee Communications. Recently designated as a most valuable trainer for Blacks In Government Training Conference 2010 and 2011 with 30 years of circling the globe teaching Communication Studies at such institutions as Howard University, Morgan State University, and the University Putra in Malaysia and facilitating organizational development and coaching executives in the US, Malaysia and Africa, Wakeelah current focus is sharing her passion, knowledge, skills and expertise for leadership development and human transformation with community-based organizations and businesses interested in international trade and development.
Wakeelah’s “Leadership by Design”: A Community Leadership Development Project, a curriculum designed to increase the capacity and capability of leaders within communities, was a 2010 Kansas Health Foundation Recognition Grant Recipient. Sponsored by the Hispanic Education Development Foundation and the African American Coalition. Combining 16 years of learning and practice with, Ontological Coaching, Kansas Leadership’s Adaptive, LeadershipPlenty, a civic leadership program and Generative Leadership, an Executive/Management performance program, this learning agenda promised to meet the leadership development needs specific to the African American and Hispanic communities. In the last year she also served as a Civic Leadership Coach for the Kansas Leadership Center in Wichita, Kansas.
Wakeelah began her work as a leadership developer in1995 while she resided as a course designer and manager of Business Communications and Corporate Leadership at the Universiti Putra Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In addition, over the last 15 years Wakeelah has served as a Diplomatic Consultant for African Embassies in Malaysia; serves as an ongoing evaluator on the Promotions and Review Board of the Foreign Services at the US State Department; designed and facilitated a Leadership series for the Bafokeng Economic Board in South Africa; designed a communications management program for the Social Security Administration in Baltimore; and developed a organizational transformation program for the Resident Advisory Board of the Baltimore Housing Authority.
Her educational background includes: An Alumnus of Kansas Leadership Center’s Art and Practice of Civic Leadership; A certified Civic Leadership Coach; a member of the Generative Leadership Institute, Boulder Colorado; a graduate of Newfield Network Executive Leadership Coaching Program; and a Licensed Trainer for the Pew Partnership for Civic Change: LeadershipPlenty Institute Training Program; Howard University, Mass Communications ABD; Wichita State University, Mass Communication’s MAC; Morgan State University, Telecommunication’s BS; and Wichita State University, BA in Speech and Theatre.
Transformative Concepts Consulting Group 
I applaud these women for their accomplishments and I commend them for their dedication and commitment to working on behalf of others to make our community, county, City and the State of Kansas a better place for all people to live, work and raise their families with the hope of prosperity.