Rita M. Gardner Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts

 

Rita M. Gardner Honored at November sixth Event

ANDOVER, Mass. and BERWYN, Pa. and CHARLOTTE, N.C., Rita M. Gardner, President and CEO of Melmark, Inc. has simply been named #38 on The Commonwealth Institute's (TCI) listing of the Top a hundred Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts for 2020. This is the 1/3 consecutive yr Gardner and Melmark have made the list, which consists of a Who's Who of enterprise leaders from throughout the kingdom of Massachusetts. TCI, a nonprofit helping woman commercial enterprise leaders, introduced the listing at a suspense-filled awards breakfast this morning. The list, now in its nineteenth year, seems in the Women and Power version of The Boston Globe Magazine.

 

Rita M. Gardner, M.P.H., LABA, BCBA leads Melmark's $95-million multi-state operations throughout all of its divisions. Melmark's applications encompass premier personal exceptional training schools, expert development, education and lookup facilities in Andover, Massachusetts, Berwyn, Pennsylvania and Charlotte, North Carolina. The organization's clinically-sophisticated evidence-based applications serve folks with the analysis of autism spectrum disorders, received talent injuries, scientific fragility and extreme difficult behaviors.

Gardner, who is the co-founder of Melmark New England and Melmark Carolinas, has committed extra than 35 years to non-profit administration in the area of community-based offerings for young people and adults. Among the pinnacle of her field, Gardner has been worried in the organization, design, improvement and implementation of over a hundred community-based packages for teens and adults. Her expert ride is targeted on excessive stage organizational graph the usage of her capabilities in baby advocacy, scientific practice, fitness carrier administration, criminal issues, public coverage and fundraising. Her confirmed center of attention on fiscal prudence, capacity to construct bridges with funding sources, and journey in the improvement and ongoing preservation of donor relationships, ensures the future of offerings for persons with mental disabilities, at Melmark and beyond.

Gardner is acknowledged all through the incapacity neighborhood as a tireless suggest for offerings for teens and adults with mental disabilities and autism, with a unique focal point on public policy. She has furnished task session to nationally-renowned businesses and used to be appointed to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Special Commission Relative to Autism in 2010. She has testified earlier than the legislature on severa problems associated to Autism Spectrum Disorders, written articles for expert journals, and made a wide variety of displays on matters ranging from women's leadership, ethics, software expansion, and conduct administration to transitioning college students with Genius damage lower back into the community.

Gardner additionally volunteers her time working to create possibilities for capabilities increase and development for ladies in the discipline of human services. She does this thru her work as a President of maaps (Massachusetts Association of Approved Private Schools), with CASP (Council of Autism Service Providers), for which she and Melmark are founding members; and her fundamental position in WIBA (Women in Behavior Analysis), for which she shares her time and knowledge as a mentor and used to be the opening keynote speaker at the organization's 2020 Conference.

Gardner says she is humbled to be identified as main one of the pinnacle a hundred women-led agencies in Massachusetts, specifically given this year's unique obstacles. "This 12 months in specific has been extraordinarily challenging, due to COVID-19 mitigation measures to preserve the persons who attend Melmark's day, in-person school, and residential programs, as properly as our staff, healthful and safe," stated Gardner. "It is an honor to lead such a dedicated, compassionate and especially expert crew – they are my heroes - as they work to make sure a continuum of teenagers and person offerings to all who attend Melmark's programs."

Gardner acquired her Master of Public Health diploma from Boston University's School of Public Health in the School of Medicine. Most important, she holds the coronary heart of Melmark's mission at the core of her expert standards. She is committed to each child, person and household served at Melmark, as properly as each member of Melmark's expert staff. Recognized as one of the main companies in the country, Melmark has a mixed workforce of over 1,200 and serves 1,000 people from throughout the country.