The Collective:
Strategy in Action™
A space where behavioral health, human services, and social services leaders share high-level insights and collaboratively navigate change.
Every Leader Benefits from Strategic Insights and Collaborations — Especially During Challenging Times
What is The Collective™?
The Collective is a highly responsive, curated space for leaders focused on strategy, sustainability and impact. It’s a facilitated experience with leaders placed in small teams. The team members are in the same industry, running similar organizations and navigating the same landscape.
What makes The Collective unique:
✔ Be placed in a team of just 6-8 professional peers
✔ Self-identified, real-time priorities drive team agendas
✔ Safe, confidential environment for support and connection
✔ Collaborative, high-level strategy and knowledge sharing
✔ Ability to join the exclusive Collective Community after the six sessions
The twelve-month program includes:
✔ Two two-hour virtual sessions
✔ One two-hour, in-person session at the RCPA Conference
✔ Three two-hour, in-person sessions at RCPA offices in Harrisburg
✔ Two one-hour VIP special briefings from RCPA leaders on the highest priority topics
Your Collective “team” is a small group of highly aligned, accomplished, competent leaders from your industry. We’ve seen teams bond deeply over time and experience long-term benefits from each other’s strategic strengths, knowledge and connections.
“The Collective isn’t just meetings; it’s a curated peer advisory space where leaders find clarity, share high-level insights, and collaboratively navigate the complex, ever-evolving landscape of Pennsylvania human services.”
The Collective: Teams and Groups
The Collective is made up of distinct groups, which start and end their engagement at the same time. The group is designed for a specific leadership role, such as CEO, COO, HR Director or Regional Manager.
Within each Collective group, leaders are organized into teams, based on their industry, organizational size and self-identified strategic priorities.
Current and emerging Collective groups include:
CEO or ED Collective - for chief executive officers leading mission-driven organizations
COO Collective - for chief operating officers navigating sector-wide complexity
HR Collective - for human resources leaders building and sustaining people strategies
Regional Director Collective - for regional leaders managing operations across locations
This is an evolving and expanding program. New Collective teams are formed as demand grows.
Collective: A Group of Individuals Acting Together
Whether you are a CEO managing a multi-entity organization or an HR leader building workforce resilience with limited resources, your Collective team will include professional peers with very similar roles. They’ll understand exactly what you are dealing with, because they’re facing the same challenges and opportunities.
How Collective Teams Are Formed
The Collective difference starts before you ever meet your team.
Every leader meets individually with Diana Ramsay, Founder of The Ramsay Group and Facilitator of The Collective. This one-on-one conversation allows her to learn about your organization, your leadership style, your current priorities, and where you most need support or would like to see organizational growth and change.
Diana thoughtfully curates teams based on:
Leadership role and scope - discussions are relevant to your actual day-to-day responsibilities.
Industry and sector - peers understand your regulatory environment, funding landscape, and mission.
Organizational size and complexity - the strategic challenges are genuinely comparable.
Self-identified priorities - the team's focus reflects what matters most to each member right now.
The result is a team that feels less like a group of strangers and more like the trusted peer network you didn’t know you needed.
“I am deeply grateful for the Collective Groups, which offered exactly what I needed—perhaps even before I realized how much I needed it. ”
Every Collective is Different, Intentionally
Each Collective group shares the same core framework, but the discussions vary depending on who is in the room.
Below is how this looks in practice.
If you join the Collective for CEOs, you may be:
✔ Navigating Medicaid cuts and grant instability without destabilizing your organization
✔ Managing board expectations when the path forward is genuinely uncertain
✔ Making smart decisions on M&A or partnership opportunities in a compressed timeline
✔ Retaining senior leadership when competitors are recruiting your best people
✔ Protecting your organization's mission and culture through rapid operational change
✔ Building cultures where equity, justice and inclusion are embedded in all operations
If you join the HR Collective, you may discuss:
✔ Building a workforce strategy when wages are under pressure and turnover is high
✔ Navigating the tension between compliance demands and a people-first culture
✔ Developing middle managers who were promoted for clinical skills, not their leadership
✔ Building hiring and promotion practices that create genuine equity and inclusion
✔ Getting leadership buy-in for HR investments that have a long-term payoff
✔ Finding peers who understand HR in human services, not just corporate HR
Every Team sets its own agenda. These are examples of conversations, not an exhaustive list.
“The Collective is an extraordinary resource for CEOs. It brings together accomplished leaders in a trusted, non-competitive environment where strategic ideas and real-world solutions are exchanged freely. The depth of expertise and intelligence in this group is exceptional. This experience fosters collaboration, clarity, and innovative thinking in ways that are both rare and invaluable.”
Meet the Collective Facilitator: Diana Ramsay
Diana Ramsay, Founder & President of The Ramsay Group, brings deep behavioral health and human services, CEO and Board experience, along with passion and a national perspective. She has spent more than 30 years in the roles that the Collective members are navigating now. She has led more than 15 nonprofit mergers and acquisitions, and served on more than 20 boards, including the Philadelphia Zoo and the National Aquarium.
Highlights from her career include:
Chaired the National Association for Behavioral Health
President of the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems
EVP/COO of Sheppard Pratt behavioral health system
CEO of several human services and behavioral health organizations, including Woods Services in Langhorne
Lobbying on Capitol Hill and state legislatures for disability and mental health issues
Diana has led organizations through complex changes and challenging financial times.
Today, she leverages her network and strategic insight to support executive success with placements, coaching and mentorship.
The Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA) Proudly Supports The Leadership Collective
RCPA is supporting this initiative in coordination with its members' needs.
RCPA won’t lead discussions, but is committed to assist in shaping any resulting action plans or innovations. RCPA members pay a reduced fee.
RCPA membership is not required to join — this opportunity is open to leaders across the country.
How The Leadership Collective™ Started
In early 2025, the behavioral health, human services, and social services sectors were experiencing significant funding uncertainty and operational disruption. Diana Ramsay and Richard Edley, CEO of RCPA, came together around a simple but urgent question: What could meaningfully support the success and sustainability of mission-driven organizations during this time?
Through a series of collaborative discussions, they conceptualized what would become The Collective. The concept was refined in partnership with the RCPA Board, member organizations, and a group of strategic CEOs who saw the value and accepted invitations to form the founding teams.
The Collective was formally launched in September 2025 at the RCPA Annual Conference, with three founding teams of CEOs meeting in person. Those teams — sorted by industry within human services and by organizational size — immediately demonstrated the value of the model.
They have continued to communicate and strategize between sessions with strong results.
That proof of concept has since expanded. New Collective groups are being conceptualized, and the program is growing in response to demand.
“This provided a valuable opportunity to build strong professional relationships with CEOs and Directors across Pennsylvania while sharing best practices to support high-quality services for adults with disabilities. The collaboration strengthened both our work and our connections, which will continue beyond the conclusion of the group.”
Recent Collective Member Organizations
Is The Collective Right For You?
The leaders who get the most from The Collective are proactive, strategic, and genuinely open to learning from peers. They understand that the right relationships — with people who share their industry, their role, and their challenges — are one of the most valuable assets they can build.
Most leaders join The Collective by invitation. If you received one, we encourage you to schedule a conversation with Diana to learn more. If you found this page on your own and feel this is exactly what you have been looking for, reach out by using the form below. Diana would be glad to connect.
Join Mission-Driven Leaders in The Collective
We curate new teams based on interest and priorities.
Use the form below to inquire or request more information.