Wye Mills, MD — Rivers & Roads Consulting has been selected to serve as the One-Stop Operator for the Upper Shore Workforce Investment Board, supporting the American Job Center Network across Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties.
The One-Stop Operator plays a central role in strengthening coordination among workforce partners, service providers, education institutions, and community organizations. Through this engagement, Rivers & Roads will help the Upper Shore Workforce Investment Board improve partner communication, support service alignment, facilitate meetings, coordinate professional development, and strengthen the systems that help job seekers and employers access workforce resources across the region.
The work will be led by Chris Wheedleton, Senior Consultant at Rivers & Roads Consulting, who will serve as the Primary One-Stop Operator. Wheedleton brings decades of experience in workforce development, education, organizational leadership, and regional collaboration. He has led and supported multi-sector initiatives involving employers, school systems, workforce agencies, nonprofits, higher education partners, and local governments.
“Workforce development only works when the system works,” said Sam Shoge, Co-founder and Partner at Rivers & Roads Consulting. “The Upper Shore has strong partners, committed organizations, and real opportunity. Our role is to help strengthen the connective tissue between those partners so the system is easier to navigate, more coordinated, and better positioned to serve both job seekers and employers.”
As One-Stop Operator, Rivers & Roads will facilitate partner meetings, support shared communication tools, help coordinate participant referral processes, track follow-up items, assist with professional development planning, and provide regular reporting to the Upper Shore Workforce Investment Board. The firm will also support documentation and coordination related to Maryland One-Stop Certification.
Rivers & Roads’ approach is built around structure, clarity, and follow-through. The firm will help establish predictable meeting schedules, clear agendas, consistent documentation, centralized information sharing, and practical systems that allow partners to stay aligned between meetings.
“Regional workforce systems are complex by nature,” said Chris Wheedleton, Senior Consultant at Rivers & Roads Consulting. “Our job is to make that complexity easier to manage. When partners have better communication, clearer processes, and stronger alignment, the entire system becomes more responsive to the people and employers it is designed to serve.”
The engagement builds on Rivers & Roads’ growing workforce development portfolio, including its work with Introduction to Careers in Healthcare, the Rock Hall Marine Trades Workforce Development Initiative, the Mid-Shore Regional Healthcare Workforce Collaborative, and other regional capacity-building efforts.
For Rivers & Roads, the project reflects the firm’s broader commitment to helping communities move complex initiatives from planning to execution. By supporting coordination across the American Job Center Network, the firm will help strengthen the workforce infrastructure that connects residents to opportunity and employers to the talent they need.
Is your workforce system aligned enough to meet the needs of job seekers and employers?
Rivers & Roads Consulting helps workforce boards, education partners, public agencies, and community organizations strengthen coordination, improve communication, and move complex regional initiatives from planning to execution. From partner facilitation and service alignment to reporting, implementation support, and continuous improvement, we help workforce systems work better for the people and communities they serve.
