Meet Our Leadership Team

Blending professional experience with passion for the under-served and marginalized

Melanie Boudreau

Founder, RRS

Graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas, School of Allied Health, with a BS degree in medical technology. Melanie became an ASCP certified medical technologist, but after parenting two children with neuropsychiatric challenges, she wrote Toppling the Idol of Ideal: Raising Children with Hidden Disabilities to encourage parents. Melanie travels to rouse community leaders in the Global South to more fully embrace families impacted by disabilities. 

In 2018, Melanie founded Relationship Restoration Strategies under New Horizons Foundation which exists to increase the quality of life for children with autism and their caregivers in nations or regions with little access to effective intervention. RRS serves to benefit people with Autism Spectrum Conditions by introducing caregivers to Relationship Development Intervention (RDI®), remediation crafted to develop Mindful Guiding Relationships as a means to promote cognitive development.

​Melanie was a presenter at the 5th World Autism Organisation International Congress 2018 joining representatives from many nations, and the Pan African Congress on Autism, April 2019.  ​

Dr. Rachelle Sheely

Co-Founder, RDI®

Clinical Psychologist who in partnership with her husband, also a psychologist, founded the internationally known Connections Center for Relationship Development in Houston, Texas. Dr. Sheely serves as the co-director of RDIconnect, as well as the head of professional training and supervision. For the past fifteen years, she has been a leader in the development and logistical implementation of programs for both families and professionals working with children, adolescents, and adults with developmental disabilities.

​Along with her extensive clinical training, Dr. Sheely brings an accomplished background in education, art, music, and poetry, allowing her to inject creativity and originality into the teaching, training, and management of the thousands of professionals and families she reaches on a daily basis. Profoundly effecting, Dr. Sheely has spent a lifetime working with children on a professional and personal level. With a gift for moving from observation to intuitive precision, her work extends far beyond treatment and into the everyday moments that resonate in the lives of her clients. 
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Dr. Janet Mangum

Advocate

Worked in California at her local school district  as a young woman in the Special Education department. The connection she made there with the parents of children with special needs challenged her to do more. She pioneered  the Touchpoint for Parents group to provide support for struggling families. More recently she authored Until I See: Peaceful Paths to Parenting Children with Special Needs. 

Dr. Mangum advocates for those impacted by disabilities, encouraging families by speaking to identity, dignity and worth.