Shaping Conversations Creating Change

  • Strategic Communications
  • Media Relations
  • Content Creation
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Services

Influence Consulting brings public attention to the issues you care about.

Communications

  • Campaign planning
  • Key message development
  • Message training

Public Relations

  • Media relations
  • Targeted pitches
  • Crisis communications

Content Creation

  • Blogs and op-eds
  • Press releases
  • Social media

Impact

The work Susan did to promote GPS in the media was absolutely critical to our budget allocation. She brought us to the attention of legislators and raised awareness about our model of group-based support and the need to bring it to frontline health care workers. She used her expertise to get us to the next level and amplified our voice at the state level.
Liz FriedmanCEO GPS Group Peer Support
The key to getting the word out about our work is to be able to talk about what we’re doing in ways that are easy to understand. Then we need to get those messages out to the right people at the right time. Without fail, Susan knows how to make this happen. Whether it is talking political strategy, putting together an op-ed, or developing talking points, Susan has a keen eye and ear that helps us find the right tone. Her expertise with both social and earned media has brought much value to our small shop, giving us the capacity to broadcast our message far and wide.
Matt WilsonExecutive Director MASSCreative
Susan brings an incredible strategic communications lens to managing our social media channels. Her ability to connect the bigger picture of our values, business goals, and messaging with the day-to-day churn of social media content makes her such a trusted partner. I appreciate her honesty (and humor!) in telling us what we’re doing well, and where we might be headed towards a misstep. Susan has seen it all, and I feel incredibly fortunate to work with her.
Terri Robinson Senior Director, Communications and Content, Hebrew SeniorLife
Susan has keen media and political instincts, strong writing and organizational skills, and a proven record of results. She has been a critical partner in helping us craft our messaging while greatly improving our visibility, image, and political effectiveness in the community. Susan has the rare ability to quickly digest complicated policy issues and develop an effective communications strategy with audience-specific messaging. She is an effective media relations strategists, and knows how to navigate traditional and new media landscapes. As a result, the quality and quantity of stories and media mentions she has placed on our behalf this past year has exceeded our expectations.
Rebecca HaagPresident and CEO, AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
Susan is an excellent writer and a first-rate editor. She is incredibly skilled at turning complex policy concepts into digestible bites for street-level use. She knows how to cultivate and nurture great relationships with representatives of the media, and how to expertly place and work a story. She also is a skilled communications strategist, with knowledge of a wide variety of free and paid media and how to put them to work to advance a message or a campaign.
Anya Rader WallackPrincipal, Arrowhead Health Analytics and former Executive Director of the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute and Interim President of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation
We know how to sing, entertain, and inspire our audiences. Susan knows how to communicate, strategize, and deliver our message so that we have an audience. Susan has a keen insight into the community and she’s great to brainstorm with. As a small arts organization she’s flexible with our media plan as no event of ours is the same. Most importantly she is fun to work with!
Craig CooganExecutive Director, Boston Gay Men’s Chorus
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Case Studies

Early Education Leaders, an Institute at UMass Boston

Since 2016, Influence Consulting has represented Early Education Leaders. We help drive program attendance and philanthropic support by highlighting the impact of the institute’s leadership development and research.

Media Advocacy

The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) faced challenges in getting the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to understand how deeply problematic it would be to permit the casino being built in Everett by Wynn Resorts to display the name of its founder Steve Wynn. Influence Consulting designed and implemented a media advocacy campaign to bring public pressure on the Gaming Commission to require that that the casino have a different name.

Using Social Media for Issue Advocacy ​

In the spring of 2017, Congress considered numerous bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act and one was approved by the House in May of that year. The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) wanted to educate policymakers and lawmakers about the potential impact that repeal of the law could have on survivors of sexual assault, who are vulnerable to numerous health conditions over the course of their life.

Client List

Past and present clients have included:

  • AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
  • The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship
  • Bay Cove Human Services
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay
  • Boston Area Rape Crisis Center
  • Boston Gay Men’s Chorus
  • Boston Rescue Mission
  • BUILD
  • Bunker Hill Community College
  • Career Collaborative
  • CareWell Urgent Care
  • The Children’s Room
  • Early Education Leaders, an Institute at UMass Boston
  • English for New Bostonians
  • Facing Cancer Together
  • Family Equality Council
  • Fenway Health
  • From the Top
  • Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
  • GPS Group Peer Support
  • Greater Boston PFLAG
  • Health Care for All
  • Healthcare Without Harm, Boston chapter
  • Hebrew SeniorLife
  • The Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation
  • MassEquality
  • Massachusetts Public Health Association
  • MissionSAFE
  • National Association of Social Workers, MA chapter
  • Partners for Youth with Disabilities
  • Project Place
  • REACH Beyond Domestic Violence
  • Silver Lining Mentoring
  • Zoo New England

About

Influence Consulting applies over 25 years’ experience to your storytelling, strategic communications, and media relations needs.

Influence Consulting is a solo consultancy owned and operated by Susan Ryan-Vollmar. Susan has deep experience working with mission-driven organizations to expand communications capacity. Working closely with clients, Susan develops key messages and utilizes media, client platforms (blogs, newsletters, and websites), and social media to get those messages out. She offers strategic communications counsel and is skilled in crisis communications.

Susan has worked in media and communications for over 25 years, 15 of them as a journalist. In 2015, she received an Excellence in NonProfit Communications award from the Massachusetts NonProfit Network for designing and implementing the communications plan for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus 2015 tour of the Middle East.

In 2016, she received a lifetime achievement “History Maker” award from The History Project for her work as editor-in-chief of Bay Windows from 2004 to 2008, when she led the paper’s coverage of the fight for marriage equality, and for her work as news editor of the Boston Phoenix, when she oversaw the paper’s investigative reporting in 2000 and 2001 exposing the abuse of children by priests taking place within the Boston Archdiocese.

Susan is also an elected member of Arlington Town Meeting and serves as chair of the Arlington Civilian Police Advisory Commission. She was a commissioner of the Arlington LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Commission from 2020 through 2024, serving as co-chair of the commission in 2023 and 2024. In 2021, she co-chaired the Arlington Civilian Police Advisory Commission Study Committee.

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