“Rhonda is borderline obsessed with fostering collaboration and creating impact.” -Rhonda, about herself
Rhonda is from a tiny town in Northeast Indiana. Her rural upbringing and country roots served as the foundation for her beliefs and identity around hard work and supporting the common good.
Rhonda launched her first business at the age of 19 after graduating from a massage therapy school. She sold that business 5 years later and put herself through undergrad. Rhonda worked 10 years in higher education from everything from admissions to institutional research to the university registrar (which she calls the “paid enemy of everyone on campus”). During that time she completed her master’s degree in Public Management (with a minor in Public Policy & Administration) and she completed her greatest accomplishment to date, bringing her son home from his birthplace in China to his forever family in the U.S.
In 2017, Rhonda became Executive Director for Start Fort Wayne, a young 501(c)3 designed to launch and scale ventures in tech and high-growth ventures. During that time, she coached countless founders on their next steps towards turning an idea into a thriving business. She took a fledgling nonprofit and created a sustainable, forward-facing, laser-focused strategy and plan for growth; and she planned and launched the region’s first Startup Week, a week-long conference dedicated to all things entrepreneurship, by global accelerator Techstars.
From there, she started her own consulting company, Ladig Consulting, to hyper-focus on projects and problems where she felt she could have the most impact. Additionally, in 2022, she began reshaping entrepreneurship and innovation support at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center as Director of Strategic Initiatives.
Rhonda believes in bucking a way-we’ve-always done it mentality to find innovative approaches to (often ancient) societal problems. She believes if we bring down silos between NPOs and NGOs we can get more done in our communities. (And she usually has an idea or two on how to do it.)
Rhonda doesn’t mince words, which sometimes means she doesn’t make friends. But that’s ok; she doesn’t want more friends. She wants to change the world.
