I am pleased to announce that long-time Devereux employee, Maggie McGill, has been named Chief Operating Officer at Devereux. Maggie had most recently served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, but her career with Devereux goes back much further.

Maggie started working for Devereux in 1975 as a residential care provider at our Kanner Center in West Chester, working primarily with children with autism. Maggie excelled in this role. She was well liked by our clients and their parents, as well as the staff with whom she worked. While well suited in this position, Maggie had other aspirations.

In 1984, then Devereux President & CEO, Ron Burd, was impressed with Maggie as he watched her sitting on the floor working with the children. Ron pulled Maggie aside and asked her what she would like to be doing with her career at Devereux. Maggie responded, “I want to go back to school and become Devereux’s Chief Financial Officer.”

While not the response Ron expected, he was nonetheless taken with her ambition and in 1990, awarded Maggie the first-ever Weaver Falberg Leadership Fellowship Promise. This annual award recognizes one individual with outstanding leadership potential, who is an exemplary role model and demonstrates a solid commitment to the mission of Devereux.

With this award came a scholarship that Maggie used to pursue an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Twelve years after completing her MBA, in 2004 Maggie was named Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Maggie’s success with Devereux as a residential care provider, supervisor, operations manager, Chief Financial Officer, and now Chief Operating Officer is rooted in her commitment to the mission of Devereux.

Her clear understanding of the important work Devereux does, has served her well in the thirty-three years she has been with Devereux and will serve her well as she helps lead us to Devereux’s 100th anniversary.

I hope you will join me in wishing Maggie much success in her new role with Devereux.