Rita M. Gardner is the President and CEO of Melmark, and leads operations and management of Melmark service divisions in New England, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas. Prior to her appointment as President and CEO in 2015, Ms. Gardner served as Executive Director of Melmark New England, based in Andover, Massachusetts, which she co-founded in 1998. She also founded Melmark Carolinas in 2018 and a second New England day school in 2022. Ms. Gardner and Melmark New England were honored to be named on The Women’s Edge list of the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts for seven consecutive years from 2018 to 2024. Ms. Gardner was honored with the CBIZ National Women Transforming Business Financial Strength Award, as well as the CBIZ Overall Winner Award, in 2022. Ms. Gardner received the Excellence in Autism Award presented by Mental Health News Education in 2024. Ms. Gardner has been recognized nationally as one of the Top 50 (ranked 10^th) Women Leaders in Non-Profits for 2024 by Women We Admire.

彼女は、トレーニングを受けた公衆衛生の専門家である理事会認定行動分析士® (BCBA) であり、自閉症スペクトラム障害 (ASD) と診断された子供と大人のためのコミュニティベースのサービスの分野に 40 年以上の専門的キャリアを捧げてきました。 、知的および発達障害、後天性脳損傷、重度の挑戦的な行動、および医学的脆弱性。

Ms. Gardner is an accomplished and persistent legislative advocate. Her public policy work has positively impacted services for individuals diagnosed with autism and developmental disabilities throughout the United States. She advocates for professional behavior analysts, being one of the citizen writers of the Massachusetts Behavior Analyst licensing legislation. Ms. Gardner also serves on advisory committees with the Massachusetts Advocates for Children (MAC) and Advocates for Autism of Massachusetts (AFAM). She is a founding Board member and Chair of the National Council of Autism Providers (CASP). Ms. Gardner also serves on the Advisory Board of the Virginia Institute of Autism. She is on the Governor’s Autism Commission under three Governors in Massachusetts and is the past President of the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Association of Approved Private School (MAAPS). Ms. Gardner also serves on the Pennsylvania Advocacy and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disability Board of Directors.

Ms. Gardner has co-authored numerous books, most recently on leadership and management in human services, written book chapters and peer-reviewed articles for professional journals, and made a number of presentations on topics including women’s leadership, women in behavior analysis, program expansion, organizational behavior management, special education, adult services, board development, and more recently managing programs during the COVID-19 pandemic and leading COVID-19 vaccine education program town halls at local, regional and national levels. She is considered an Organizational Behavior Management expert in applied human service settings.

Throughout Ms. Gardner’s tenure leading Melmark, she has made cultivating and sustaining Melmark’s endowment fund a strategic priority to help ensure organizational stability and long-term funding for the organization’s mission-first work. In 2024, under her stewardship and the culmination of many donor meetings, Melmark received a $30M endowment gift from an anonymous donor, the largest donation of any kind in the organization’s history. Since Ms. Gardner became President and CEO in 2015, Melmark’s endowment fund has grown from $6.8 million to $80.5 million in 2024.

ガードナー氏は、ボストン大学の医学部公衆衛生学部で、行動科学と医療サービス管理を専攻し、公衆衛生の修士号を取得しました。